What's with the Zephyrs?

[George K]

Currently on #27, pulling into Havre. Looking at status maps, I see that #5 has been stuck near Omaha all day long - now showing a delay of 16 hours(!). Similarly, #6 is delayed at Omaha, with a 4 hour delay.

Anyone know what's going on with those two?

 

[bmjhagen9426]

I would suspect the weather. Nasty weather out there. We're talking about tornadoes and T-Storms.

 

[Agent]

Report here on the BNSF getting shut down around Omaha from trees getting blown down.

 

[JayPea]

I read elsewhere it is indeed the weather. Apparently last night high winds blew power lines and trees onto tracks in the Omaha area.....and into trains as well.

 

[bmjhagen9426]

Report here on the BNSF getting shut down around Omaha from trees getting blown down.

Even though I don't have subscriber access to Train Orders, I would imagine that it is a royal mess and requires a cleanup. What about the Zephyrs behind them, that are supposed to go thru that area? Too bad for the sleeper passengers, because they would be thrown into the bus (hopefully not under it), and have to deal with the downgrade. Brace yourselves, a blowout of the run.

 

[Amy in TX]

Both trains are moving again. 6 is almost 6 hours late and 5 is more than 17 hours late. I'm assuming the passengers are still on but don't have info on that.

 

[CCC1007]

Report here on the BNSF getting shut down around Omaha from trees getting blown down.

Even though I don't have subscriber access to Train Orders, I would imagine that it is a royal mess and requires a cleanup. What about the Zephyrs behind them, that are supposed to go thru that area? Too bad for the sleeper passengers, because they would be thrown into the bus (hopefully not under it), and have to deal with the downgrade. Brace yourselves, a blowout of the run.

There has been an impromptu detour on UP in previous outages...

 

[Agent]

Here's Amtrak #6(15) passing through Agency, Iowa this evening running eleven hours and seventeen minutes late. Also caught some radio chatter from the train at the end. This Zephyr met Amtrak #5(17) at Ottumwa. Also, this train did not reappear on Amtrak Status Maps after coming out of service disruption.

 

[Misty.]

My question is (since I've only just woke up, I don't expect Google to function properly for me), where is there a bustitution along the SAC-SLC portion of the Zephyr currently? I got the robo call saying that there will be alternate transportation over part of the route about a half hour ago.

EDIT: then I got another robo call saying "never mind, mistaken call", then another conflicting call saying "nope, you do have a bustitution". I did Google a little, and the only remotely relevant thing I found was about a window of track work that ended early this month... unless there was some crazy weather yesterday that I didn't see?

 

[chakk]

The wb CZ that departed Chicago on June 16 was delayed 17 hours near Omaha due to winds of 100 mph dropping trees and power lines onto tracks in that area. Passengers are still on board this afternoon as the train nears Salt Lake City, making all regular stops. It should have arrived there last night around 11 PM

 

[Jadzaluk]

I am supposed to be leaving tomorrow at 11:09 from Sacramento and have gotten conflicting emails and phone calls, regarding changes in service for all or part of the trip. After 20 minutes on hold, I learned that they will be bussing us to Truckee to get the CZ 6.

I know that this is related to the very long 16 or so hour delay that was incurred as discussed above. I was told that this was how they were compensating for the delay,

Not sure how that all works?

 

[CCC1007]

I am supposed to be leaving tomorrow at 11:09 from Sacramento and have gotten conflicting emails and phone calls, regarding changes in service for all or part of the trip. After 20 minutes on hold, I learned that they will be bussing us to Truckee to get the CZ 6.

I know that this is related to the very long 16 or so hour delay that was incurred as discussed above. I was told that this was how they were compensating for the delay,

Not sure how that all works?

Sounds like an early turn, put the locomotives on the rear and send it back to Chicago... this occasionally happens with the empire builder in Spokane, though I have to wonder whether they would be better served to run corridor equipment up to meet the zephyr instead of a bus bridge... up will have an open slot for an on time zephyr, so why not send a corridor set out of Oakland as train 1006 to gather the passengers going east?

 

[KmH]

There is a nice big loop at Truckee they could use to turn the #5 around without unhooking the locos.

That way they wouldn't have to turn all the coach seats.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Truckee,+CA+96161/@39.3298423,-120.1798541,601m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x809bdfec3c4e8dd7:0x6d172f88c134fcc9!8m2!3d39.327962!4d-120.1832533

 

[Bob Dylan]

There is a nice big loop at Truckee they could use to turn the #5 around without unhooking the locos.

That way they wouldn't have to turn all the coach seats.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Truckee,+CA+96161/@39.3298423,-120.1798541,601m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x809bdfec3c4e8dd7:0x6d172f88c134fcc9!8m2!3d39.327962!4d-120.1832533

Hopefully they'll restock the Diner and Cafe and have a Cleaning Crew Clean the Cars,and Pump the tanks.
This Train will be pretty Funky after so long a time on the Road!