They are sending a few train west of Omaha via the BNSF. Yesterday a couple of coal hopper trains that were tied down were to go that way. I got home at midnight Friday/Saturday, tied up 20 times out. Went to work yesterday on a manifest that is supposed to go to the BNSF today.
My train didn’t have enough power for going over the BNSF, so we were supposed to pick up an engine off a tied down train. (There were still 10 trains tied down in westwern Iowa.) The train we were supposed to steal power from was a DP hopper. We were to take sthe trailing unit of the lead consist. When we got there it wasn’t going to be able to be used. Deader than a doornail, no battery charge, and it had dumped it’s water. They talked about using the lead engine, but decided the drawbacks to doing that were too bad. We were told to proceed, that they would find another engine later on.
Jeff
We have an incoming car parked somewhere in the middle of Nebraska and one in the middle of Montana due to flooding.
From reports I got from my drivers and from customers we have in Nebraska UP better hire a bunch of track workers and buy every ton of ballast they can get their hands on. If the reports are half as true as they are saying most of their mainline is washed out in the flooded areas and bridges were taken out also.
BNSF is detouring over UP to Council Bluffs/Omaha. Due to a temporary waiver allowing non cab signal equipped power to lead in cab signal territory, BNSF power can lead. I saw one such move with a BNSF engine leading.
Jeff
So the UP leader on the Amtrak trains wouldn’t be necessary, either, I guess. In theory, PTC should be able to cover a multitude of sins (we know better, but still).
Where do you suppose the BNSF trains west hop onto the UP? Are you going to see any of this stuff, Jeff? How’s your “pilot’s license”? [;)]
So far, the Amtrak trains have been getting UP leaders. I don’t know if the PTC is actually interoperable yet. They all have the same PTC equipment, but I don’t know if UP’s “back room” will recognize a BNSF (or Amtrak) engine and vice-versa.
The detours, both BNSF and Amtrak, get on/off the UP at the west end of the Missouri River bridge in Omaha. They reworked the track layout at the connection a few years ago. Before the rework, Amtrak could leave the passenger station and go directly to the UP. Now they have to back out of the station and then use the adjacent track to reach the connection.
I have a chance of catching one of the detours. It will just be the luck of the draw.
Jeff
Just a note from here,South of Wichita. The last couple of days I’ve seen at least three trains on the NB line from Mulvane, they were UPRR power leading,and BNSF power trailing.
That area is PTC equipped. The UP power at that point, would possibly, have come North from Ark City, or even off of the SouT-con out of Wellington. No idea where they originated on the stackers they were leading(?). One was a solid tanker train {at least, the bufffer car behind the engines was a BNSF}.
There was one very long import/export(not one domestic can on the whole train) stack train, I saw; all BNSF power, head end was 1BNSF, 1NS, 1 UP, and 2 BNSF midtrain, and 2 BNSF DPUs trailing. (my guess was, it was over 10k + feet,in length). They seem to go thru this area on wednesday’s or thursday’s(?).
How about the east end of the detour, Jeff? How far west do I have to go before the volume gets heavy?
The east end for the detours depends on the train. Some get off the UP at Clinton, some go all the way to Chicago. Some may go to Edelstein to regain home rails. If you see a BNSF engine leading on the UP side on the Rochelle camera, it’s a detour.
About the luck of the draw, I just got called for AMT6X. Seems to be running late today.
Jeff
I have some friends who were scheduled to be on today’s UP detour WB Zephyr, but have since elected to drive to Colorado. The got a refund apparently because their Naperville stop was eliminated. They were told that ther may have been some bustitution around bridges. Has that happened?
The Amtrak employee at Omaha said they stopped taking reservations for the Zephyr until April 1st. I don’t know if it’s over the entire route, or just to/from stations affected by detouring. No 6 didn’t leave Omaha until around 530pm yesterday.
Jeff