Hmm, I wonder which station that was–Dearborn St., LaSalle St., Grand Central, Central? I don’t think that Union Station would have given such a problem, but I may be wrong.
I don’t believe that it was any of the stations in their most recent configuration. Some of them were built and rebuilt on the same dirt multiple times I believe. Others were abandoned completely in the name of consolidation. My gut tells me we are talking pre 1900 original build date. Obviously since I cant find my source, I can give no meaningful specifics. I wish that I could.
The Denver station was built as a thru station. Sometime in the Amtrak era the south connections were severed, but there were still ladder tracks at both ends. About 10 years ago, the south ladder tracks were removed when the station was rebuilt as a stub ended terminal. Wether CZ pulls-in or backs-in, one way or another it must back thru a leg of the wye formed by the different lines coming into the station from the north, in order to continue the journey.
In 1968, the CZ backed into Denver by going around a wye before the B.U. move. The power was changed. This I believe was the normal routine.
The South ladder tracks were used by trains to and from Colorado Sprrings and Pueblo, the Royal Gorge route, the conncection to the AT&SF main. CS-FW&DC to Texas, La Veta Pass to Alamosa, and the MP to Kansas City and St. Louis.
Everything else used the north ladder track, CB&Q east to Chicago, UP-CR&P to Limon and then to KC (UP) and Chicago (CR&P). UP north to Cheyenne, CB&Q north to Billings and East to Chicago, and the D&RGW Moffat Tunnel line. So the CZ always had a back-up move, and the Exposition Flyer before it.
Not sure, but I think I remember reading the South Park, later Co. Sou., narrow gauge also came in from the north.
In Jacksonville, the ACL-FEC trains could run through the station. All other through trains had to have a backup move, since only the FEC accesses the station from the south.
Back again to No. 21, the Texas Eagle. I saw it tonight in Temple, TX. There were no passengers in the dining car, only one in the lounge car, and no one boarded or deboarded the train. Well, that’s not exactly true. Two smokers got off the train for a puff. And afterwards got back on.
Makes me wonder. Amtrak dropped the transition sleeper and one coach, presumably due to low ridership. Would it make sense to drop the dining car and up grade the menu in the lounge car?
If the Texas Eagle had four cars as opposed to seven, would there be a significant savings in fuel consumed?
It would be interesting to know how many people are actually riding trains. If it’s like the airlines, the ridership would be down 80-90%.
In FY19 the Texas Eagle averaged 440 passengers per train (Nos. 21 and 22). Through February of 2020 the average per train was 385.
Assuming the steep decline in ridership - 10 to 20% - started with the rolling lock-downs that began in March, and further assuming the decline in average passengers on the Eagle mirrored those for the long-distance trains, the average number of riders per train for the Texas Eagle could be in the neighborhood of 39 to 77.
Under the pared back schedule, the Texas Eagle is one of three trains a day between Chicago and St. Louis. The load factor probably is higher on this segment of its run than south of St. Louis.
We won’t know the numbers until the March and April monthly performance reports are issued.
As an aside, I read where the Secretary of Transportation has authorized a grant of $1 billion to help Amtrak navigate the current troubles.
Cannot speak to the services offered on the Texas Eagle; but we rode the SW Chief in Feb of this year. Had a good evening dinner in the Dining Car, but used the Snack Bar located on the lower level of the Sightseer Lounge Car…It was well stocked,but no cooked items were offered, only commercially available packaged and bagged snacks, and bottled drinks. Trip was roughly 12 or so hours on train. Only stops made for short time lengths were for boarding passengers and to allow smokers,off and back on.
That lowers the revenue without necessarily reducing all the fixed costs such as station upkeep, employees, etc. Even if employees are not working and your not paying them, your still paying for accrual of vacation as well as healthcare. Someone did a study a while back of running a train three times a week vs once a day a while back and found the savings were not that great.
Indeed, Amtrak began a long descent for a century of RR sleeper protocol when they put them right behind the power & baggage cars. Consider CUS under normal operating conditions and how far 1st class pass’s have to walk to get from the Metro lounge to their sleepers whereas coach pass’s have a much shorter jaunt.
But a short-term walk on arrival?
I never had trouble going to sleep.
There aren’t that many grade crossings out your way. Last time I rode the Lake Shore the horn blasts were almost continuous.
There are more factors to be considered here.
With the advent of social distancing (or using correct practice for it) the capacity of a given train becomes lower, perhaps to the kind of density cited in a transit post elsewhere, where the nominal capacity of a full-sized bus is now no greater than 9. That means that a logical expedient for ‘maintaining daily service’ (say, running only the consist a single locomotive can pull) may easily result in either ‘unsafe’ passenger concentration or, as in the transit example, turning people away ‘ad hoc’ whether they are properly ticketed or not. Neither is particularly tenable.
Meanwhile – also as noted – decreasing the frequency implicitly increases the passenger load on those trains that still run – see above, again, except with that many more people to be affected.
Now if Amtrak were to go to full computerized scheduling and seat allocation – with the number of seats arbitrarily reduced to ‘those that can be sold’ under spacing restrictions … you could easily do this in software without actually having to put ‘seat assignments’ by number and row on the ticket … you could have some control over what trains would require what length when they actually ran. But this in and of itself is l
Tampa,FL bound trains back into the station. I have been there twice in recent years.
Used to take the ACL West Coast Champion from Wash DC to Clearwater FL mid 50’s to early 60’s. The stop at Jacksonville was a bit longer because they did a lot of switching adding and taking off cars. Cannot remember if the northbound train backed into the station or pulled directly in. Regardless of whether it was the southbound or northbound run, the train always entered and departed from the north, thus leaving Jacksonville was always resulted in a reverse direction move for the consist, some of which were 3 to 4 EMD E Units and 21 -26 cars in length.
We’ve been on all west long lines, even with the parlour car always on sleeper in front except Zephyr July a few years back in back. Only consistant semi-exception was Texas Eagle in front switched behind coaches onto the Sunset back to Tucson.
Of course in England sleepers are ties/DK
In pre-Amtrak days, many if not most passenger trains carried sleeping cars that were handed off (or picked up) at various points along the journey, sometimes running through to/from other trains and even railroads. I always thought this was at least one reason why the sleepers were carried at the rear, i.e., to facillitate switching at intermediate points by local switchers that were more numerous than today. This is not much of a consideration today since Amtrak has very few interline operations of this type.
Regarding slack action, that should be minimal, or almost none, due to titelock couplers on passenger equipment, right?
SHHHH! Don’t give them any ideas!