Royal Scotsman

Thanks, Chris!
Interesting look, albeit with serious sticker shock...

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Sorry, I got as far as previewing a reply, but evidently never hit 'post'.

The Fort William line is best known as the "West Highland Line", and a search on that term will retrieve links like

ScotRail
Wikipedia
Seat 61

It's a regular daytime service line, as well as the sleepers and specials that Chris has mentioned.

Thanks, Richard. Cool stuff, and certainly fuels some dreams.

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Sorry, I got as far as previewing a reply, but evidently never hit 'post'.

The Fort William line is best known as the "West Highland Line", and a search on that term will retrieve links like

ScotRail
Wikipedia
Seat 61

It's a regular daytime service line, as well as the sleepers and specials that Chris has mentioned.

I made 4 missile patrols out of Holy Loch/Dunoon in the early 80s, and visited both Glasgow, Edinburgh, St. Andrew's, and Loch Ness. Scotland's been on my "going back" list ever since. I've bookmarked those links, so when it gets high enough on my list, .......

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

The trackers follow the conductors' phones, I think (educated guess)

Which is what I thought, however it appears they bussed all the passangers for stations between Omaha and Denver then the train carried on via the "northern" route as the 6 was spotted by one of the other Railstream devotees passing Grand Island Nebraska

Not the best pic but still interesting given the circumstances!



However the 6 was over 11 hours late at Chicago.

Today they seem to be back on the normal route.

Sorry, meant to get back to you earlier. It does make sense that 6 would detour over UP Denver-Omaha, although then I would expect the conductor to be on the train, not the bus. I haven't heard anything definite about it, though.

It appears BNSF had the line open by Monday afternoon, so the problem for Amtrak was short-lived.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Today I was waiting for the City of New Orleans to come over the airline at Chicago, when this appeared.



Seems like 821 may have suffered some sort of breakdown, however what was stranger was this.



Number 41 on the end and when it reversed into the station I could hear that 41 was running but 821 was not.

So I wonder why 41 was not on the front?

Here is the reversing shot a nice close up of CN 5686, I am trying to remember if I have ever seen a CN loco on the Chicago camera before!!

I put out an inquiry about this, but I haven't heard anything yet.

58/59 usually run with a single engine. My educated guess is that it died somewhere along the line and CN provided the freight unit to move the train. However, it would have been dark and cold. Therefore, I'm further guessing that when they got to Carbondale, they took the engine off the previous night's 393, which would have been turned and ready to go that morning on 390, and to save time, they just tacked it on the back end to provide HEP.

Wait, I just checked 58's performance that day (this was the train that arrived CHI on the 25th, right?). It shows as being close enough to be called on time all the way to Champaign, and then it took a 2 hour hit between there and Kankakee and another hour into Homewood. Furthermore, none of the 390 series trains show a significant delay that day. AFAIK, they do not keep a spare engine at Carbondale. So I'm back to being stumped about where that rear end unit came from.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Just something to think about, if this passenger train was Maglev, no rescue engine from CN could be added, since the tracks are not compatible.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

The Superliner is a bilevel car used by Amtrak on long-haul trains that do not use the Northeast Corridor. The initial cars were built by Pullman-Standard in the late 1970s and a second order was built in the mid-1990s by Pullman's successor, Bombardier Transportation. As delivered, the cars came in various configurations, including coach, diner, and sleeper.

Bombardier was not technically a successor to Pullman. The original Superliners were the last cars Pullman built before going out of business. Somehow or other, Bomb was able to use the design to build the Superliner IIs (I'm not sure if Bomb bought the design from Pullman, or licensed it, or perhaps Amtrak actually owns the design).

And for those who wonder what all the "configurations" are: (I am sure David will correct me if I am wrong :-)



Coach class, standard long distance "aircraft type" seating but with more leg room. Having traveled Amtrak "coach" on the North east corridor those seat were very comfortable. Has 64 seats on the upper level and 12 seats on the lower.

Correct. Distinguishable by the lower level windows to one side of the door but not to the other side. Also, the seats have leg rests (in addition to the foot rest on the back of the seat in front of you).

Coach baggage, no seating on lower level, some of these cars were converted to "smoking" on the lower level, but have all apparently now been converted back.

Correct again. There is no longer smoking allowed anywhere on board any Amtrak train. Some of these were converted with snack bars in the baggage space so they could sell food without using a whole lounge car. The ones that are still baggage now have padlocks on the interior door to the baggage compartment (probably because Congress passed a law requiring Amtrak to carry guns in checked baggage). You can see on the regular coach where the panel could be removed from the side and a baggage door installed, but I think this was just to make construction easier, not intended for later conversion back and forth.

The Lounge sightseer car, has a cafe with some seating on the lower level

Correct.

The all important restaurant/dining car, no windows downstairs, this is where the kitchen is located. You need good food if you are on the train for 51 hours!!

Please explain that to Congress!

Finally the sleeper, 10 2 person "roomettes" and five larger "bedrooms" upstairs, 4 "roomettes" and a "family bedroom" downstairs, also downstairs are toilets, bathrooms, and showers.

Distinguishable by having lower windows to both sides of the door. Besides the rooms Bernie mentioned, there is also a handicapped accessible bedroom downstairs. The original cars have had a public shower retrofitted into empty space across from the top of the stairs; Super IIs were built with it. Also, some Super IIs were built with all bedrooms on the upper level, for exclusive use on Auto Train.

The Super II order also included 47 Transition sleepers.



As you can see, there is a small window at the front end. There is a staircase down to a door at standard car height at this end. The upper level is all roomettes, with the rear few of them sold as public revenue space (I rode one of these to New Orleans in December 2013) and the rest used as crew dorm space. The lower level has a handicapped bedroom and a crew lounge. (These are the only Superliners on which front and rear have any real meaning; all the others can be run whichever way they happen to be facing in the yard when the train is assembled.)

Now if I could just afford a trip!

That's why I have an Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card. Every dollar I spend on anything gets me a point. Spending on Amtrak (and certain periodic promotions) gets double points.

(Problem 1: I have trouble sleeping anywhere other than in my recliner. When I went to NO, I ended up undoing the bed and sleeping in the seat. (I did the same coming back on Pullman.)
Problem 2: if I'm gone longer than overnight, the cat will poop and puke all over the place.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Just something to think about, if this passenger train was Maglev, no rescue engine from CN could be added, since the tracks are not compatible.

True, but I don't see maglev being built anywhere except for very special corridors. No one is going to build a 1,000 mile maglev between Chicago and NOLA for one train each way per day.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Just something to think about, if this passenger train was Maglev, no rescue engine from CN could be added, since the tracks are not compatible.

True, but I don't see maglev being built anywhere except for very special corridors. No one is going to build a 1,000 mile maglev between Chicago and NOLA for one train each way per day.

Yeah, I just cited it as an example. Some have this idea that it's so great and then forget that if the train gets stuck, what then? At least with HSR, what was done for Amtrak can be done to HSR in an emergency, since HSR uses couplers on each end of each train.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20150328_Reuters_Report_KBN0MO0TH_Los_Angeles_train_hits_car_on_tracks_and_derails__21_hurt.html

Los Angeles train hits car on tracks and derails, 21 hurt

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Bernie, I heard #6 is coming with TWO new electrics on it. If it wasn't Sunday, it should be Monday.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Bernie, I heard #6 is coming with TWO new electrics on it. If it wasn't Sunday, it should be Monday.

Yes I have actually made contact with the guy who runs this site

4rr.com

As he run a list of the current whereabouts of the P42's, I sent him a few screenshots of some of my sightings and we have exchanged few e-mails.

He originally said 638 and 639 were coming Saturday, but that was the day they were picked up, so I will be keeping and eye out around 14:00 CT.

I also noticed that these are finally starting to appear



The new baggage cars, I suppose that was the reason the 29 yesterday had 4 old ones!!



I assume taking them to Chicago.

I have also discovered via him that I have seen all but 8 of the working P42's as he was able to fill in the blanks so that 10 I had not seen I now know are out of service.

I only knew definitely about 143 and 149

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Bernie, I heard #6 is coming with TWO new electrics on it. If it wasn't Sunday, it should be Monday.

Yes I have actually made contact with the guy who runs this site

4rr.com

As he run a list of the current whereabouts of the P42's, I sent him a few screenshots of some of my sightings and we have exchanged few e-mails.

He originally said 638 and 639 were coming Saturday, but that was the day they were picked up, so I will be keeping and eye out around 14:00 CT.

I also noticed that these are finally starting to appear



The new baggage cars, I suppose that was the reason the 29 yesterday had 4 old ones!!



I assume taking them to Chicago.

I have also discovered via him that I have seen all but 8 of the working P42's as he was able to fill in the blanks so that 10 I had not seen I now know are out of service.

I only knew definitely about 143 and 149

Ah yes, the new Viewliner baggage cars. It's unclear whether they're actually in service yet or just running around the system to make sure no routes have problems with them (they shouldn't) and for crew familiarization (there is some; I believe they have heat, so there are some basic systems to know).

The old ones are probably going to Beech Grove, where I'd guess they will be stored and eventually scrapped. If I remember correctly, baggage cars may be available for sale, but when the new diners come out, I believe there is a clause in the contract requiring ALL of the old ones to be scrapped. That sucks, because they'd probably have a higher demand from museums, tourist lines, and private car operators.

Since I'm off this week, I may spend a bit of time right next to the building that camera is in. You won't see me though; I'd have to walk out on the tracks to appear on camera and that would be both stupid and illegal.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

So the California Zephyr is suppose to arrive at Chicago at 2:50Pm CT which is 8:50pm BST.

However it decided to be 2 hrs 48 minutes late, 5:38pm CT or 11:38pm BST

Also just before it arrive the Texas Eagle turned on the wye and stopped thereby blocking the view of the inbound track, it had only just moved out of the way, you can still see it just under the bridge, when 158 and 158 finally appeared.



And behind them (with just 2,500 miles delivery milage) were 638 and 639!!



Also if you look very closely in the bottom right just above the "Railstream" logo, you will see somebody doing exactly what David said would be " both stupid and illegal" and they were waiting for the 6 as they are walking away in the 2nd pic!!

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I can assure you that's not me being stupid and illegal (although it's not quite as stupid as I thought would be necessary, but that location in particular is one where you don't want to do anything illegal because they watch it closely). I never got there. I was headed for it, but the traffic was exceptionally terrible. I got some lousy pictures of the train at LaGrange instead.

You're probably asleep for it in both directions, but engine 145 has been on train 380 the last few evenings and returned on 380 the following mornings. I hear that after 380 arrived today, however, 145 was pulled and assigned to one of the trains to the east coast (either 30 or 50, not entirely clear which) for tonight, and that the electrics were split up and will continue east one at a time.

Once the morning clouds moved off, it was a beautiful day for photography and I happened to catch the local going out on the branch on the west side of Aurora, which I'd never seen working before. I shot the snot out of that train. Maybe I'll post a few.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Well unusually the 30 was nearly 2 hours late today which means I got to see it through Berea, which I normally don't.

It was too dark for any clear pics, but one of the electrics was there.

Couldn't see which one, I could see that neither P42 was 145 as neither were heritage.

I did see 145 arriving on the 380 yesterday.

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So the 30 was even later today (over 4 hours) being the last of the 4 (29-30-48-49) through Berea rather than the first!!

I can confirm the second ACS-64 was indeed on the 30 today.

So both now on or near the east coast!!

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And this train is one heck of an Ugly Duckling... This is a train from the Amtrak Cascades on what is called the NW HSR corridor(BC to WA to OR).

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

And this train is one heck of an Ugly Duckling... This is a train from the Amtrak Cascades on what is called the NW HSR corridor(BC to WA to OR).

Yes the Talgo 8 I believe, this is the NPCU (Non powered cab unit), there are pics a videos of it being powered by almost anything!!

Though normally by an F59PHI



Of course the other end looks strange and if they run it without power at that end you have BAT TRAIN or is that Kitty Train

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