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Snow, downed wires hinder Amtrak operations
Years ago this sort of weather happened every year in the Midwest. Everybody under age 40 are wimps when compared to their parents and grandparents.
Amtrak is going to get some really good dinosaur deadbeat media coverage out of this. It seems one of the personnel from one of the morning shows was stuck in Galesburg for quite some time. To add insult, she could look out the window and see traffic moving out and about town.
Meanwhile, it still isn’t bad enough to slow me down, along with a whole bunch of others who understand how to operate in real winter. Has to get much worse.
But here is some sound advice for all the Amtrak worshipers. Find some old Soo Line F units. The Soo, being ever conservative with the money, didn’t have much for snow removal equipment and quickly found out old F units worked quite well with that rounded nose being hammered into drifts. Copy the nose design and transpose it on those ugly euro-boxes that are supposed to be Amtrak locomotives.
BTW, the major airports are run by the local governments. Not that it matters. Some railfans apparently can’t differentiate between the private sector and local government.
As for the bus companies, that is the private sector. If they choose to not winterize their equipment, that is their own business decision. Nobody is imposing it on them or claiming they are super critical to transportation, unlike Amtrak which is constantly claiming it is super critical and is able to operate no matter what happens.
Meanwhile, certain individuals from NJ need to learn very old and ancient Germanic languages in order to realize my last name has absolutely nothing to do with those critters from Canada which happened to fly in and mess up what little grass remains in NJ.
Before the Goose squawks, the privately? run airports, airlines and bus companies were also blocked by the snow and sub zero temps. And how about Jet (Black) and Blue blaming the federal government for its problems. It knew about the changes for the crews for months.
BNSF doesn’t normally keep rotaries in Illinois because it is extremely rare that they need them. On very rare occasions they are brought in from Nebraska or the Dakotas. Too bad I missed it as I would love to see them in action. However, I do feel sorry for all of the people whose plans were disrupted regardless of how they were travelling.
totally agree jeffrey. it is winter and it has happened before. i guess obamas bride got scared and stayed in hawaii for her 50 th bd w out barack. lol
The situation in Illinois is embarrassing. At last count, we, BNSF Railway, had 9 rotary plows. Why weren’t some of them standing-by? PPP, methinks.
All of these events are pretty much common during a major storm but in watching national coverage I was struck by the absence of any indication of how the railroad passenger service was doing or not doing. The disruptions compared on a scale of the number of cancelled services seems to be less than that of airlines. No note of this?
Another oddity was the unidentified “switch failures” on the CTA. Being in the North, I would think that switch heaters were present and operating. Having grown up along the North Shore Line that ran through areas very prone to icing and drifting, and checking company records, comparatively few trains were ever annulled. The last day of operations in Arctic conditions were no exception.
Thanks to Trains for filling us in…on what happened.
I am not at all surprised to hear that a little blizzard has had no affect on Mr. Guse, unlike for most mere mortals. All hale the Super Goose.
Given the progression of global climate change, foul winter weather is the new norm. Amtrak absolutely needs to improve the snow worthiness of its locomotives in the north, can not have the route plowed as needed to keep on or close to schedule. Airplanes and busses are too sensitive to ice to operate during inclement weather. Trains have the highest tolerance for ice and snow of all means of transportation. The railroads need to be able to keep the necessary equipment for operation in inclement weather ready throughout the cold season. No plow or amount of sand is an unnecessary expense for northern railroads, despite what bureaucrats and other “budget gurus” may claim.
Given the progression of global climate change, foul winter weather is the new norm. Amtrak absolutely needs to improve the snow worthiness of its locomotives in the north, can not have the route plowed as needed to keep on or close to schedule. Airplanes and busses are too sensitive to ice to operate during inclement weather. Trains have the highest tolerance for ice and snow of all means of transportation. The railroads need to be able to keep the necessary equipment for operation in inclement weather ready throughout the cold season. No plow or amount of sand is an unnecessary expense for northern railroads, despite what bureaucrats and other “budget gurus” may claim.
Utter nonsense that this type of winter weather happened every year in the midwest and I’m on the wrong side of 60.
In all fairness to Mr Guse and having 16 years of being an OTR driver you learn his to deal with weather as best as possible. Where I drove the rule was to drive or not was a drivers decision and the company would support that decision irregardless. Especially in challenging conditions. I will not fault operators for making decisions concerning operations. One makes the best possible decisions one can. Just remember there are consequences of decisions made. What if a passenger train had detailed and been damaged as a result. You put the passengers at risk and millions of dollars of equipment. Watching the Youtube videos of rotaries was neat. Stay safe and warm everyone
Well, Well, Well. I guess that I’ve made an enemy of the Wicked Guse of the Mid West. FYI, I’m also from German stock! My grandfather, may he rest in peace, Americanized our last name when he arrived at Ellis Island. There is a slight difference between Mid West andNorthEast Corridor services. The NorthEast trains operate by overhead electrical wires. Unfortunately, in the severe cold, the wires sagged and some landed on the top of a NJ Transit train, stranding thousands of people trying to get home.
Years ago, even Amtrak could handle snow better than it seems they can now. My uncle ran the Floridian and then the Hoosier State between Indy and Chicago for many years, and when there was a big snow and blow in the mid 80’s, they put a “homemade” looking plow on the front of his train in Lafayette and sent him north. He stopped to pick up stranded car and truck drivers stuck on parallel Indiana 43 between Brookston and Monon. I believe he said he broke several operational rules to do this, but was getting close enough to retirement not to worry about it. It even made it into the Lafayette paper. In those days, that was the only way to get between Lafayette and Chicago. For many years that old plow was stored near the old Monon shops, but it has been gone for quite a while-don’t know what happened to it.