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With our upcoming train trip from PGH to SAC only a couple of days away, I was looking at my month's worth of on-time status to determine a pattern.
The arrival of the Capitol Ltd. into PGH westbound seems worse on weekends than on weekdays, although it has been over an hour late only 6 times out of 20.
My connection in CHI from the Capitol Ltd to the California Zephyr has been made every day for a month, although a couple would have been a hasty run from platform to platform. Lateness is in the 2-4 hour range as a norm, for the 5 hr 20 min window.
Arrival into SAC was always 2 hours late, to an extreme of 10 hours late. That makes no difference to our trip as we are staying 3 nights in SAC.
The return to CHI on the Ca Zephyr would have yielded 9 failures to connect, unless they held the Capitol for late passengers. We are staying 2 nights in CHI, so not a problem.
The final leg back to PGH shows extremes, either less than an hour or 3 hours late.
With over 100 train times recorded on my chart, only 2 were "early" both being 3 minutes. I was sharing my chart with another train fan at work, and other co-workers laughed at someone even doing such a chart and going by train with such results.
I told them it is part of the adventure, but it is hard to encourage someone to "try it" with these results. I have gotten a couple of takers to try a train trip to New York on the Pennsylvanian.
See you on the rails June 20.
Posts: 76 | From: Steubenville, OH | Registered: Oct 2004
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Enjoy the trip......I'm particularly glad that you're taking time to soak in Sacramento. The railroad museum there is a particularly good railfan destination.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I have taken the Zephyr twice this year, once from CHI to SAC, and once from DEN to SAC. In both cases we arrived about 2-3 hours late in Sacramento. The Zephyr seems to run on schedule to Salt Lake City, and then lose time between SLC and Reno. Couldn't figure out the cause of the delay. Freight traffic did not seem to be a problem, and I saw no construction. Speeds were just slow. Maybe someone knows what the problem is in Nevada.
Posts: 133 | From: Canaan, CT | Registered: Dec 2004
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For about 180 miles across Nevada the former Southern Pacific and former Western Pacific mains function as double track with the normal operation westbound on the ex SP and eastbound on the former WP. This is located between Alazon, which is about 45 miles east of Elko NV and Weso, which is about 4 miles east of Winnemucca.
You could be following a freight train and never see it. There are sidings, but UP would be unlikely to stick a freight of any significance in a siding to let Amtrak pass. Because the other track is on a different alignment you are unlikely to realize when you meet trains going the other way.
George
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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We're back from a fabulous trip! A couple of quick notes: Regarding food service on our 11 day trip, the food ranged from good to excellent, no complaints! During the entire time, we never heard "Dinner Lite" or "Simplified Dining" used by any Amtrak staff member. They simply refer to a "change in the menu." Reservations are taken for lunch and dinner, breakfast is first-come, first-served.
On the down side, the process seems to be wearing out the Dining Car staff. The three meals run into each other timewise, and everyone is "on the run" with fewer staff.
There are 40 slow orders on the Zephyr from Salt Lake City to Reno according to the Conductor, and we were 6 hours late into SAC. The eastbound Zephyr was almost 4 hours late into Chicago, stop-and-start from SAC to Reno. It was a poor decision to singly track part of the Sierra run, freight traffic had it clogged.
Chicago Union Station was packed last Wed. night as Amtrak was not running the Lake Shore and provided no alternate transportation due to the eastern rains. The Capitol took some as far as Cleveland, but with all the western trains late... Last night the Lake Shore was running as far as Syracuse with bus filling the gap. The Capitol even stopped at Bryan, Ohio to unload passengers. We were 3 minutes from our crew going dead when we eased into Toledo according to the scanner.
I'll write more later.
Posts: 76 | From: Steubenville, OH | Registered: Oct 2004
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