RMweb Premium melmerby Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 Not really into the advantages of fixed formation Push-Pull by the look of it. Still can't understand the logic of all these single ended locos on Amtrak services and having to turn the whole train at the end of the journey Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 Just now, melmerby said: Not really into the advantages of fixed formation Push-Pull by the look of it. Still can't understand the logic of all these single ended locos on Amtrak services and having to turn the whole train at the end of the journey One cab is cheaper than two. Not just in purchase, but maintenance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 Just now, newbryford said: One cab is cheaper than two. Not just in purchase, but maintenance. They often have two locos, with the cabs facing the same way, why not a pair back to back, then they only need to swap ends? The electric service out to Harrisburg is operated as a fixed formation with a double ended electric loco on the "outer" end, the cab car always faces away from Harrisburg. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 9 minutes ago, melmerby said: They often have two locos, with the cabs facing the same way, why not a pair back to back, then they only need to swap ends? The electric service out to Harrisburg is operated as a fixed formation with a double ended electric loco on the "outer" end, the cab car always faces away from Harrisburg. Back to back is no good if there's a problem with the lead loco, such as a smashed windscreen. Some services do see the odd b2b pair though. No idea why it seems to only be the electric fleet with double cabs. Maybe because there are few (if any) wyes that have been wired? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 2 hours ago, newbryford said: Back to back is no good if there's a problem with the lead loco, such as a smashed windscreen. Surely that applies anywhere not just the US? Nearly every other country uses double ended locos or double ended trains. Even in the US Brightline have trains that sandwich a rake of coaches between two custom Siemens Chargers for reversible running. Amtrak's Acela is a double ended European derived train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted August 21, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 21, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, melmerby said: Surely that applies anywhere not just the US? Nearly every other country uses double ended locos or double ended trains. Even in the US Brightline have trains that sandwich a rake of coaches between two custom Siemens Chargers for reversible running. Amtrak's Acela is a double ended European derived train. Intensive services suit double ended trains. Even though Brightline is hourly - sometimes pushing half-hourly - that is considered "intensive" by US standards..................... But..... other places don't particularly have trains that have the same locos on for a couple thousand miles plus and two days with a departure schedule of one train per day. Having traveled on the Southwest Chief last year, there were quite a few miles with no other locos that might come to our aid to be seen. I spent most of the time - apart from a few hours sleeping across Kansas - of our 1700 miles from Chicago to Flagstaff in the restaurant or lounge/observation cars and in the 250 miles from Trinidad CO to Albuquerque NM (over the Raton pass that only has one train each way per day) and only saw a "preserved" Geep at Lamy NM - not a lot of help here.... The Chief covers over 2200 miles with no planned loco changes - just a refuel and check at Albuquerque. ("My" SWC with #184 did feature in the VR grab bag at La Plata and our arrival at Flagstaff) So having the ability to swap the lead loco seems like a good practice. Brightline and Acela/Northeast corridor aren't too far from help. Back on topic - why Metra seemingly change locos on a regular basis on a push-pull service does seem very odd to those used to UK/European practices. Admittedly, there is a huge morning/inbound - evening/outbound commuter bias with minimal off-peak traffic and I haven't watched the evening commute on Steel Highway - even though being at OTC for 90 minutes one day. If you want a true commuter service, the ACE in California has four trains that run Stockton-San Jose in the morning and return in the evening with no other services inbetween. There are plans to introduce off-peak round trips. They have supplemented their ageing F40s with SC44s and repainting their Bombardier bi-level fleet to match. My pics. Edited August 21, 2023 by newbryford 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted August 22, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 22, 2023 Found this 1911 photo of the C&NW station showing the original construction before the modern rebuild: https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a24216a.preview.jpg 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted August 23, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 23, 2023 Just had this unusual (?) working. At about 12:31 what looks like Amtrak 90221 led an Amtrak train with SC-44 on the other end, into Union Station. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted August 24, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 24, 2023 20 hours ago, melmerby said: Just had this unusual (?) working. At about 12:31 what looks like Amtrak 90221 led an Amtrak train with SC-44 on the other end, into Union Station. Probably a Hiawatha Milwaukee-Chicago service - the one you saw would most likely be train #334 looking at the Amtrak schedule 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted September 4, 2023 Share Posted September 4, 2023 On 21/08/2023 at 22:12, newbryford said: Back on topic - why Metra seemingly change locos on a regular basis on a push-pull service does seem very odd to those used to UK/European practices. Admittedly, there is a huge morning/inbound - evening/outbound commuter bias with minimal off-peak traffic and I haven't watched the evening commute on Steel Highway - even though being at OTC for 90 minutes one day. If you want a working theory, we know the loco servicing (at least heavier servicing) happens in separate places to the whole train set (including loco) stabling - the servicing is near the core of the network, but lots of the trains are often stabled nearer the outer ends of the multiple lines as it saves empty movements. So given that, swapping at least some loco's out for servicing and replacing them with fresh ones when they are in the city in the quieter middle part of the day makes some sense. (Even if it looks really weird! 😁) (The cynic in me says also likely a big degree of "if it was good enough for <insert previous railroad> then we shouldn't change anything....") 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted September 4, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 4, 2023 (edited) There's 2 huge depots W of the OTC where the stock is housed/serviced This is the UP one (Note "Boiler replacements"🙂 I wonder how it operates on the BNSF line? Edited September 5, 2023 by melmerby 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Huge number of sets end up stabled overnight outside the city though, so cycling loco's off the sets that had overnighted outside the city at a faster rate than the coaching stock gets cycled for maintenance makes some sense: BNSF/Metra have a similarly huge diesel shop and car yard complex south of CUS just opposite Amtrak's And the Rock Island route has what looks to be a 4th diesel shop, a bit further out between 47th and 51st st! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted September 5, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 5, 2023 They certainly seem to have some impressive facilities. Sometimes consists go to the yard with the train loco, sometimes the loco goes off (to refuel?), meanwhile the UP station pilot takes the rake to the yard. Sometimes rakes are moved from track to track (usually using the pilot) I suppose it seems odd to us that it's so complicated and so many loco moves and trips to and from the yards take place on what is a push-pull service. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 This non-VR camera at New London, CT, went live last month.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJT3r-Ovuc 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted January 6 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 6 2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: This non-VR camera at New London, CT, went live last month.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJT3r-Ovuc That's a new site for me. I've been building up a list of railcam sites on Google Earth Pro and "Railside Live" isn't one of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted January 6 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 6 (edited) This is a recent new Live Trains feed from Blue Island, IL There's another static cam looking the other way. Edited January 6 by melmerby 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 13 hours ago, melmerby said: This is a recent new Live Trains feed from Blue Island, IL There's another static cam looking the other way. That's a good location for a camera - been there a few times. According to a poster in the chat this morning, it only went "live" for viewing by the Public yesterday! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted January 7 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 7 2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: That's a good location for a camera - been there a few times. According to a poster in the chat this morning, it only went "live" for viewing by the Public yesterday! It's been on test since early December and was expecting it to go live any day. Just happened to get it on the first day! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Was worth watching this afternoon to see this go through ! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted January 7 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 7 Wikipedia is wrong (there's a surprise🙂) as they claim only 4609 is left in service! Or is it just being towed? There doesn't seem to be any exhaust. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 18 minutes ago, melmerby said: Wikipedia is wrong (there's a surprise🙂) as they claim only 4609 is left in service! Or is it just being towed? There doesn't seem to be any exhaust. Railpictures.net have a couple of photos of it taken in Battle Creek, MI, mid-December saying it was then en-route to be scrapped. Seems it had been dumped there for a while. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff_W Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 It appears the stack is capped on that unit, and with the numberboards gone I'd say it's bound for long term storage or more than likely, the scrapper. I regrettably only ever photographed one BC Rail "barn" over the years, back in 2018. NS 147, Kings Mountain,KY 4/5/2018 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 One from Blue Island that proves not all Intermodal trains are huge...... 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Another odd one from Blue Island just now. A bit of different graffiti on the side of an Autorack - someone has painted a dual-door bus on one!! When I first saw it go by, I thought it was a painting of an LRV of some sort. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted January 15 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 15 2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: Another odd one from Blue Island just now. A bit of different graffiti on the side of an Autorack - someone has painted a dual-door bus on one!! When I first saw it go by, I thought it was a painting of an LRV of some sort. It looks a bit like an Optare Solo bus, except I've never heard of a LHD dual door one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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