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Trains.com has just reported that Amtrak train 350, the Wolverine from Chicago to Pontiac Mich, was terminated at Dearborn monday, owing to lack of a cab control car, the Assigned unit - a former F40 Locomotive converted to a powerless cab control car- had been bad-ordered and there was no reserve unit According to Amtrak spokesman Marc Marliari. The 55 passengers for points beyond Dearborn completed their by Bus.
Cab cars are in use on many Amtrak short-haul trains where there is no place for locomotives or trains to reverse directions, enabling Amtrak to save on locomotive costs. Locomotive shortages sometimes do not allow the luxary of running a power unit on each end of a train. The Seven daily Chicago-Milwaukee "Hiawatha" trains in each direction operate with a cab car, enabling quick turnarounds, and the Service requuires only two trainsets per day. Other routes that use or in the past have used cab cars, include Chicago-Quincy, Ill Boston-Portland, Maine, and the Fort Worth-Oklahoma city "Heartland Flyer", The Chicago-Carbondale, Ill., "Illini" normally does not use a cab car because a turnaround wye exists at Carbondale on Canadian National.
With no wye or other means to turn the train around at Pontiac, Mich., however and without a cab car. the affected Michigan train with P42 Genesis Locomotive 37 and 3 cars could not proceed past Dearborn. The Wolverine Trainset was turned around on Norfolk Southern at West Detroit, which is west of the Detroit Amtrak Station, to become Train 355 the "The Twilight limited", out of Dearborn. This Trainset is scheduled to Turn Back from Pontiac 40 minutes after arrival. instead, Amtrak provided bus service linking Dearborn with stops in Detroit, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Pontiac, which is 35 miles north of Dearborn.
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