Troubles on 166 to Boston 6/4/23

[B&Ofan]

I was on 166 to Boston last night. At Metropark the train was right on time. At New York City there was an issue with our engine which delayed us for about an hour while we swapped out our engine. It seems like a long time but I can understand it as dealing with it with no notice things can take longer then expected. The issue I was concerned about was that our crew died at Route 128 station and it took at least another hour to get a replacement crew. Amtrak did provide snacks and water for those who didn't bail out so close to h0ome.

It just seems they know when a crew will die, and know timing, it just seems that this should of been a surprise and could of got things in motion a little earlier. I suppose that there are a lot of variables and maybe they were hoping to get to Back Bay before the crew hit it's limit and if they had a crew waiting at RTE, and we were delayed more then they would need a crew at Providence. Also I imagine past midnight on Monday morning is not the easiest time to find a crew without messing up the schedule on Monday.

We did get back about 3:30 am so all well that ends well.

 

[Acela150]

The motor from DC had issues with the Parking Brake engaging. The Engineer called the dispatcher at NWK and told him that anytime he applied the brakes that the Parking Brake would engage and wouldn't come off without an issue. He asked for a straight shot to NYP as stopping would cause issues. He was told that a straight shot without stops was going to be an issue. So to get mechanical in place and the crew to swap the engine in NYP does take time.

As for why a crew wasn't available to get the train from RTE to BOS, I believe that BOS does NOT have a protect crew at that hour to take the train into town and the options are a yard crew if they aren't tied up with work or the extra board. And if the extra board is the option then that uses a person to move a train 15 minutes that will need to be off for 8 hours. It's all to the "powers that be".

 

[B&Ofan]

The motor from DC had issues with the Parking Brake engaging. The Engineer called the dispatcher at NWK and told him that anytime he applied the brakes that the Parking Brake would engage and wouldn't come off without an issue. He asked for a straight shot to NYP as stopping would cause issues. He was told that a straight shot without stops was going to be an issue. So to get mechanical in place and the crew to swap the engine in NYP does take time.

As for why a crew wasn't available to get the train from RTE to BOS, I believe that BOS does NOT have a protect crew at that hour to take the train into town and the options are a yard crew if they aren't tied up with work or the extra board. And if the extra board is the option then that uses a person to move a train 15 minutes that will need to be off for 8 hours. It's all to the "powers that be".

That tracks with what happened. We did crawl from NWK to NYP (except in the tunnel) and I suspect that was the reason. I do understand it was a difficult situation and I'm sure everyone did there best. Thanks for the great info, it is nice to know what was going on behind the scenes!