Has the Amtrak #14 and #11 ever gone past Klamath Falls up to Bend and then
up to the Colombia River and then over to Portland? If so ,why can’t it do it again?
That might be easier then waiting for them to clean up the slide. Dave Br.
I have asked the same question at a different forum. Sill waiting for a reply. Talk about a rare mileage trip!
Edit: I found this reply on another bulletin board, so I have no way of telling if the following is rumor or not.
"Recognized detour routes are actually specified in the contacts. I remember when we eliminated the Tehachapiis, from Bakersfield to LA, from the SP contract. Amtrak did not resist this by the way.
Chemult to Portland, via Bend, is not on the detour list, at least not in the current UP/Amtrak agreement. This is also not a route which will allow Amtrak to come anywhere close to maintaining their schedule or their equipment rotation. Not to say anything about all of the station stops in Oregon that they miss. It is also extremely disruptive of any freight operation under normal operations, to say nothing of what happens if the UP increases their use of this line, as they can under existing agreements."
From Trainorders BB.
…Well then,maybe someone can explain how the 4449 can go over and down to Bend.
It’s a passenger train!!! Isn’t it??? Dave Br
CG 9602 pretty much answered your question. Normally when a line over which Amtrak operates is blocked by a wreck, a mudslide, or whatever Amtrak uses a bus bridge around the blockage to transfer passengers between the trains on either side of the blockage, and those trains are turned to go back to their originating terminals as if they were thru trains. Amtrak might also use a bus to get passengers around a blockage and complete the journey to the final destination. This is what Amtrak did earlier with the mud slide north of Klamath Falls. It bused passengers between Klamath Falls, Portland, and Seattle because it was faster and it served the Coast Starlight’s intermediate stations better than a detour.
The reason a fan trip with 4449 can go down the line to Bend, and Amtrak can’t or won’t is the fan trip doesn’t have to serve any intermediate stations on the Shasta Route while the Coast Starlight does.
Back again with another question, The Shasta Route,Does that include Dunsmuire
over to the west side and up to Eugene? Dave Br Why wouldn’t they use that
route for a couple of days??? Didn"t they use another route around Denver a
couple of weeks ago.The passengers loved it,I heard…
The other line that runs thru Montague (California), Medford (Oregon) , Grants Pass and Roseburg is called the Siskiyou Line and is operated by the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad. This line basically runs from Weed, California to Eugene, Oregon near the 5 Freeway. Sadly this line is a very ANCIENT, CROOKED and SLOW SLOW right-of-way allignment. The Tunnels are too low to clear an Amtrak Superliner Car. It would take well over 24 hours for any train to transit this line from Eugene Oregon to Weed California
That is why only local freight traffic operates on this line which is not suited for larger modern freight cars. Here is a very good website that has more information about the former SP Siskiyou Line and shows some of the very rugged areas:
http://www.alpharail.net/corp/corphill.htm
----Daniel