I am on board Amtrak train 303 from Joliet to Springfield, IL today. I am sitting in the last of four cars (a cafe car followed by three coaches) today so I can listen in on the conductor’s radio. It is interesting that the UP detectors report defects, axle count, train speed and ambient outdoor temperature. I can tell you for a fact that our train today is cheating on the 79 mph speed limit as the last detector called our speed as being 83 mph…perhaps because we left Joliet about ten minutes late they may be trying to make up some or all of the lost time. Otherwise this train is pretty much the same as the other “Lincoln Service” trains I have been on in the past year or so. The unit pulling us looks like it had a head on collision with a garbage dump truck…yuk!
Well have a great trip Jim !!![;)]
Getting any pix ?
…Jim, that garbage truck must not have fazed the motive power too much to put you at 83 mph…
Your reports are interesting knowing they’re almost live…
Well, we ALMOST arrived in Springfield on time but were “stabbed” by a MOW crew in our way just about a mile north of the Springfield depot and that made us about ten minutes late.
During my trip down I was able to engage the Amtrak conductor in some conversation during his “down time” and he seemed a good guy who cared about Amtrak providing good service to its riders. He complained about the SIXTEEN slow orders between Alton and St. Louis. He and his assistant conductor were laying overnight in St. Louis and taking the 4:30 a.m. train north to Chicago tomorrow.
I also found it interesting to listen to him read slow orders over the radio to the engineer and also hear the engineer read the signals out loud to the conductor. During our trip over U.P. I heard him contact the U.P. dispatcher ON HIS CELL PHONE instead of his radio for various reasons. We passed two other Amtrak trains that were northbound against us…one was a Lincoln Service train and the other was the Texas Eagle which was in a siding south of Bloomington waiting for us to pass on the main line.
I ate a microwaved Amburger with cheese about forty minutes out of Springfield (cheeseburger, diet coke and a cookie…$10, ouch!).
All in all a pretty good trip but I kinda think my northbound trip out of Bloomington tomorrow evening will be very crowded due to it being a Friday and the kids going back home to Chicago metro for the weekend. We’ll have to wait and see about that.
The “ATC” has a “Fudge Factor” of ABOUT 5 mph.
Man, that thing would have had to be as big around as my head to pay $10 for it. Why so much?
I’m thinking as my round-trip fare was only a very reasonable $26…Amtrak was trying to make their money elsewhere whenever possible…besides, where else was I going to go for lunch as I was on a train going 79 mph across central Illinois
Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention earlier that while we were stopped a mile short of the Springfield station waiting for MOW equipment to clear the track ahead of us, some passenger just couldn’t wait for the few extra minutes and simply jumped off of the train while we were stopped. The engineer radioed back to the conductor who had been making a PA announcement about the delay and asked why he (the conductor) had let passengers off the train BEFORE the station…needless to say the conductor was very surprised and embarrassed by all of this.
Jim –
We were in Bloomington/Normal on Friday evening, May 18, and they were having the formal ISU graduation ceremony that night (we were on a side trip to Avanti’s).
So my guess is the college is in summer mode right now. Don’t know about Illinois Wesleyan, though.
Thanks PZ, I hope the train is not SRO tomorrow as I have had a long week and with seven appointments tomorrow I could use a peaceful trip back to Joliet.