I was wondering about something today the amtrak hiawatha. Comes into milwaukee between 2:35 pm and 2:50 pm. I know this cause during the school year i would sometimes get stopped by the train as it crossed. Waterford ave but today I stopped to watch a frieght train go by and as the frieght was going by.
The amtrak train came racing by on the other track but going south and this was about 3:08pm so my question is how fast can an amtrak train turn around to go back the other direction. And also did amtrak train break down somewhere today that one of the oter trains had to make up for the lost one. Because when i saw this train he was movin right around 50 or so and he was only 1mile and 1/2 from the airport station. Or Do the amtraks move that fast before they get out on to open track where they can really open up the thottle. Thanks for any help that get sent my way.
According to my latest timetable, a northbound train is due in Milwaukee at 2:34 p.m. A southbound leaves there at 3:00. I suppose that it’s possible that the same equipment would be used, but that’s highly unlikely–it would count on an on-time performance that isn’t always there. Cabbage cars or other push-pull arrangements do simplify things, but I’m sure other work also keeps such a fast turnaround from occurring.
On the UP (exCNW) Metra suburban trains, we could change ends in about 2-5 minutes. One of the variables is the length of train (how long it takes to walk from one end to another), another variable is whether the engineer can walk outside of the train (like at a platform) or whether he has to walk through the train (thereby having to open every door along the way. The other variable is how successful the air brake test is once the engineer had changed ends.
The time to actually reconfigure the locomotive or cabcar controls to be in the lead or trail only takes a minute or so.
While I have no idea if the same equipment is used or not, seems to me that Chicago-Milwaukee is a short enough run that it could be run like a commuter service… in which case that turnaround on equipment would be nothing out of the ordinary.
Commuter trains have walkover (or flipover) seating, which the Amtrak cars don’t–but I suppose they could get around that by just leaving half of the seats facing each direction (I can’t remember if they did that a few years ago when we rode up there and back).
(Jim, I walked the platform at Geneva a couple of times…)
Well i did not mean to say that amtrak lost a train what. I meant was did an amtrak train have a break down or something today. Because to see the train come into milwaukee between 2:35 and 2:50 and then turning around to leave downtown milwaukee at 3:05 now what if the engineer needs to go to the bathroom does. He go or does he hold so the train can leave on time for the southbound trip. OR does he do like most bus drivers and truck drivers do and carry a bottle.
Carl, actually I noticed on the Amtrak cars I rode to/from Springfield a few weeks ago they also had “flip” style seating but I don’t think it is frequently used, but can be for “party” seating like on the old Southwest Airlines planes of olden days.
Many of the Amtrak cars have reversable seats(entire unit pulls out and is reversed). I am not sure which cars they are currrently using in that corridor, so maybe they are not reversable. I suspect that they are using ‘Cabbage’ cars(old de-motored F40PH) on the other end so they do not have to physically ‘turn’ the consist.
BTW, the pre-Amtrak CB&Q Twin Zephyr arrived in Mpls, was ‘turned, re-stocked, and cleaned/washed’; then left for Chicago in under an hour! A 7-8 car consist with a pair of engines. To be fair, coach cleaners got on the train in St Paul and started cleaning while the train was enroute to Mpls, but they still wye’d it, re-fueled the engines, restocked the cars, and ran it through the washer once they were at ‘Zephyr Pit’ north of the Mpls station.
I have never seen a “second” Hiawatha train set in Milwaukee. I don’t think Amtrak has any mechanical operation in Milwaukee and I suspect that only two train sets are employed in the service. The schedule is set up so that between the first trip each way in the morning to the last departure in the evening there is at least around 30 minutes for the turnaround. With seven trips each way (daily, except sunday) each set makes three and a half round trips. Thus a set is in Chiago for the overnight layover every other day. Each set runs only 595 miles a day, so two days is only 1190 miles. That’s easily within a reasonable time and distance for refueling, routine maintenance and cleaning, all of which is done around the clock at Amtrak’s Chicago maintenance facility.
I don’t know what happens if there is a mechanical failure or other major delay on the road (buses?), but the Hiawatha Service has something like a 95+% on time record, so I don’t think any sleep is lost over that prospect.
Usually not an issue on passenger trains. The time between stops is not that long, so unless the engineer has a weak bladder, or isn’t feeling well, we just wait until the next station stop.
If a “sit down” is required in the toilet, the engineer will communicate with the conductor and inform him of the situation, and the train then makes a longer station stop.
If the call of nature is too urgent to wait, all you can do is tell the dispatcher and stop the train (much to everyone’s displeasure).