A question about Amtrak and the weather.

I kinda doubt this is much of an issue. The TMs are force ventilated all the time. This tends to keep the snow out. On the intake side, the air passes through inertial filters that drop out most of the ice and snow. I can imagine you might get the occasional, transient, ground relay, but it’s hard to imagine this being a major reason for poor cold weather passenger train performance. After all, frt trains with the same basic locomotive design are managing pretty well in the same conditions.

I’m sticking with maintenance as the issue. I can remember almost no cold weather issues in the early days after Amtrak’s conversion to HEP.

This by Fred Frailey is for those of you who feel that Amtrak and BNSF just turned out the lights and went home for the duration of the storm.

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/blogs/trains-talk/2010/01/12/the-real-train-from-hell.aspx

Wow. Those are not regular winter conditions! Not much anybody can do about that. Maybe Amtrak needs to anticipate these kinds of conditions, stock the train, and warn the passengers. Some free meals in the diner and frequent updates would likely have kept the passengers from mutiny.

Don: In this case I may have accidently guesed one problem.

Fred Frailey’s train talk referenced on another post in this thread quoted the BNSF passenger desk. On the first update BNSF says the first two units are not operating due to ground faults and the third unit has one traction motor cut out. That speaks a lot about the DC motors. Evidently the BNSF units leased to AMTRAK worked when isolated from the AMTRAK units. Anyone – were those units AC units?

I agree that maintenance may be an issue but 3 units on a 9 car train should have been enough even going up the front range.

I live in Shelby, MT, a.k.a. “Shelberia”, by the BNSF and Amtrak crews. We are an Amtrak “Crew Base”. It went down to negative 39-degrees F. a couple of weeks ago, only down to negative 26 last week. That is not reported by the media. A lot of factors determine the Amtrak trains regularity. When it gets that cold, rails split/fracture (perhaps because they buy Japanese steel) and things go to hell. Amtrak is, most times, prudent and rarely annulls trains, except in Florida service when a hurricane is 1,000-miles away. Yar, we had the “Empire Builder” annulled a couple of days. It WAS cold, I remind you. All-in-all, they do pret’ good, considering the trains are serviced in Chicago, home of the big "U"s. Anyhoo, the #7 finally got on its way, only to hit a loon in a car on a grade crossing in MN. Big-time loss, to the schedule, there! Why do the cops investigate grade-crossing “accidents” like homicides? I’d say, just push the car/truck out of the way and continue on, after notifying authorities, of course, if possible. Back in my college days, I frequently took NYC’s train from either Utica or Syracuse, back to Canton, NY. Sometimes we’d get stranded in those towns, bunk-up (many) (co-ed) in a motel room and have a party! NYC would get us up the St. Lawrence Division the next day. Much more snow, in New York’s “North Country” than out here! Steam heat worked, but not all the time!

Wow! Amtrak #7, the WB “Empire Builder” just whistled-off, out of Shelby, MT at 1722 hours, “On Time”! First in a long time! Anyhoo, I lived on Jacksonville Beach,FL when the “Cooters” (there were two of them) got dumped on by an Amtrak train. I believe they were fishing under the bridge on the St. Johns River, near Palatka (Buffalo Bluff, perhaps). Well, that led to the mandate for retention toilets, nationwide. Not a bad thing, acktch’ully. I wouldn’t want to be a MOW worker and have to deal with the poo-poo. I did get into it, taking pictures on the New Haven (trespassing) back in the '50s. Not a nice thingie! Up in the mid 50’s, here, today. January thaws don’t last long!

Trying to run through drifting snow is tough business. That business about the BNSF units not working when MUed with the P42s is puzzling. Is it possible to plug the MU jumper into the passenger train communication jumper? They both look like 24 pin connectors to me.

You remember that cloud behind the passenger trains? Wanna guess what that cloud was?

One of the perks of operating a tourist line is that everybody gets to do everything - including dumping the holding tanks. I would not want to be a track worker on a busy line in those days.

Our cars date to the time when they did dump on the tracks. Preparing them for holding tanks was not a pleasant job, from what I’ve heard.

My mother delights in telling this one - I was about one and beginning potty training. Went for a trip aboard a train during the winter. Somebody flushed the toilet. Apparently I wouldn’t use one for some time after getting that cold blast on my young behind.

Don: YES – you may have hit on the MU problem. I’ve looked at both and they appear identical. Any car man or engineer here confirm or deny? My only other thought is maybe moisture from the snow got into the female connector on the front of the AMTRAK P-40 which may not have been protected from the snow or weather and caused a high resistance or complete short. This is one reason that all freight locomotives made in the past few years have the permanent connector cable able to be pluged into the female outlet or dummy outlet on the front of a loco…

BTW thought they were 27 pin connectors----anyone?

That occured under the Sandusky Bay Bridge in Ohio on the Water Level Route, and it did cause quite a stink!!