posted
I have been tracking the CZ arrival into chi and it has been late but today takes the prize. It is 11hrs,3 min late. Does anyone know why. There must be an accident or something serious to be THAT late.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Not only the Zephyr, but also it appears that the Chief has been getting scalped of late as well.
There has been adverse weather in Kansas which would account for the Chief; possibly same applied for the Zephyr.
I can't recall when i last observed an on time or close to it #4 or #6 - especially the latter.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: Not only the Zephyr, but also it appears that the Chief has been getting scalped of late as well.
There has been adverse weather in Kansas which would account for the Chief; possibly same applied for the Zephyr.
I can't recall when i last observed an on time or close to it #4 or #6 - especially the latter.
The SWC #3 that I was aboard departing Chicago in April met both #4 and #6 within an hour of being on-time. That's probably about as close as they ever get.
-------------------- 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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From reviewing material elsewhere, i have learned that owing to the flood conditions in Kansas, #4(24) was detoured over the UP Hutchinson to Topeka. This is the ex-Rock Island "route of the Golden State'.
Oh well, I guess we now have a "Golden Chief'.
As I recall during December 1963 - the one and only time I rode the route - it was "more bounce to the ounce'. Since the line appears to be a secondary line for the UP, I shudder to think what kind of shape the line is in today. FAIK, it is a 49mph "dark road" (no signals).
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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There was a "Trains" article about the former Rock Golden State Route a couple of years ago (authored by Fred Frailey, IIRC). Apparently UP is putting quite a bit of money into the line. It is still ABS in parts, but UP is adding CTC. This work, and the upgrade of the former T&P west of Ft. Worth, are both attempts to decongest the Sunset Route. So it should be in pretty good shape. I don't, however, know what the current traffic volume is.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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I checked with Amtrak.com.according to them the cz wil be 5-6 hrs late due to heavy congestion, speed restrictions and other operating conditions. The Capital Ltd is 5-6 hrs due to heavy freight congestion but the Lake Shore is only i-4 for the same reason.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Thanks for the update regarding the Golden State Route, Mr. Resor. I'm pleased to learn that the Union Pacific intends to make use of what seemed a dormant transcontinental route. UP of course can route traffic to their heart's content off the route to St Louis and an NS interchange to the East insomuch as the MP is theirs. They could also route traffic through Thebes to the C&EI for Chicago, but that is circuituous. Their trackage rights over the BNSF KC-Chi is to my best knowledge limited by agreement to trains that can be so routed.
But meanwhile back on historic passenger rail, my December 1963 ride (when Illinois ACTUALLY was a football powerhouse and went to the Rose Bowl - not even a Big Ten team is assured of that anymore) was as I noted "bounce to the ounce'. It was even more 'bounce' in view that my Roomette was in a Rock Island 8-6 "Golden--" car in which all Roomettes were over the wheels (there was also a Budd SP 10-6 in consist - the zenith of quality carbuilding; could I have been so lucky???)
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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When you made that December 1963 Golden State trip, what do you recall the general consensus amongst railroaders of that day being towards the future of rail passenger service?
You and I have agreed that by the end of that decade most railroad professionals would have never imagined that Amtrak would still be here selling passenger train tickets in the 21st Century but.....well....I'm just curious how clearly the handwriting was on the wall in 1963 that these passenger trains were mostly going to go away.
Thanks,
-------------------- 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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Most definitely, Mr. Presley, the consensus out there when I was riding during '60's was the handwriting was on the wall by end of the Korean War. The reason I did not say WWII was because there had to be justification for placing the large "postwar" lightweight equipment orders.
However, some carriers, particularly in the West were determined to 'go out in style'.
But the fact remains that DPM once editorialized that any road making a substantial postwar equipment investment sure made a poor one.
Just my thoughts from one who was 'been there done that".
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Gilbert - I am curious......... You obviously worked in the rail industry at one time. Can you share with us which RR you worked for, and what your capacity was? Just curious..........
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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Actually my position in MILW Finance & Accounting was with Internal Audit. However, I also held positions with Labor Relations, and for a short time, in Operations.
My railroad career was between graduation during 1970 and December 1981 (save one day during January 1982 to qualify for '81 vacation pay - and was quite productive wrapping up loose ends), when I left to enter private practice with my own CPA firm.
Only "Glasnost" here!
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Thank you Gilbert and Pullman -- my curiosity has been satisfied!!!!!
I too had a VERY BRIEF career in the railroad industry -- I actually worked for AMTRAK for about 6 months in 1973 as a telephone reservations agent in the then-Chicago reservations center (top floor of the old Santa Fe Building on Michigan Avenue - from our office, we could watch the Sears Tower being built!). I held that job between graduation (with a Masters Degree) and finding a job in my chosen career path (which was geology-hydrogeology)
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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No railroading career for me but I did spend about four years as a Volunteer Train Host for the North Carolina DOT. I did one or two Saturday roundtrips from Raleigh to Charlotte on the Piedmont each month helping new passengers find available seats, answering questions about mass transit and visitor attractions in the towns we stopped at enroute, and passing out brochures to the adults and coloring books to the kids. We would sometimes assist in the vestibule at station stops if the conductor asked us too. It was entertaining but sometimes it is best not to make one's AVOCATION a VOCATION.
I really enjoyed working the Piedmont when they were still using the ex-Milwaukee Super Dome on that train. Saturday mornings from Raleigh were usually fairly busy.....Saturday evenings pretty light as most folks who were making a weekend getaway waited until Sunday evening to return.
We won't even go into my graduate school job of driving a bus for the University of Maryland shuttle system......that's a topic for another time and a different place!
Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Hi guys, I hesitated a long time before commenting on the vast majority of replies on this Post. It is amusing to see how my original question was hijacked into a completely different topic very quickly. We are all very good at that. That is the way conversation moves among friends normally so I would say there is a large grooup of friends on this forum
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Maybe friends?, ....or maybe just a large group of chronic hijackers with a common interest in bagpipes and ponies? Who can tell?
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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I have no tolerance for those who hijack threads. These hijackers should be rounded up and locked in windowless rooms with no furniture or fixtures except TV's showing continuously-looped-reruns of the Pee-Wee Herman Show.
But since this topic is on former jobs, did I ever tell you about my career as a Chippendale Dancer?
Posts: 445 | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Originally posted by zephyr: I have no tolerance for those who hijack threads. These hijackers should be rounded up and locked in windowless rooms with no furniture or fixtures except TV's showing continuously-looped-reruns of the Pee-Wee Herman Show.
But since this topic is on former jobs, did I ever tell you about my career as a Chippendale Dancer?
While I am guilty as charged, I would like to point out that at no time in this thread did I mention stagecoaches, ponies, or bagpipers....
till now.
But if we must pay homage to the original post, I am curious as to what the latest California Zephyr any of us have personally ridden would be. I arrived 6 hours late into Emeryville in April 2005. In July 1999 I observed an 8 hour late eastbound CZ passing through Burlington, IA.
-------------------- 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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Where's Ira? This thread needs some railku.
Speaking of old railroad lines, my husband grew up in Grand Forks, ND and says he used to ride a train between Grand Forks and the Twin Cities, he thought it was called the Red River Express or some such thing. It was an express, did not have a lot of stops. TwinStar, Gilbert, any memories of same? Does this reveal his advanced age? Note: this memory means that he is much older than I.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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Vicki, check out www.gngoat.org for the Red River Express.
As for you Not Elvas, we're keeping the Pee Wee Herman tapes handy. But to answer your question, my latest CZ was 9 hours late into Chicago in 2001.
Posts: 445 | Registered: May 2002
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The latest CZ we have been on was little over 9 hours. there had been a freight accident in Truckee and the CZ was right behind it. We didn't leave Denver until 2:30 AM. WE had a choice of going on to Chi and flying home or taking a chance on a sleeper the next dayor bein g bussed from Galesburg to Ind. and catching up with the Cardinal. (we were booked on the Capital). We chose the latter. So we were dropped off in the pitch dark in a field by the tracks outside of town and told to wait for the bus. In about 20 minutes along came the bus driver across the field , picked up our bags and told us to stay right behind him as the field was full of gopher holes.with some 30 other people we we driven to Ind where at 1:30 we met the Cardinal and got back to DC. They upgraded us to a deluxe bedroom, called our daughter to tell her of our change of plans and really couldn't do enough for us. Oh yes, we got a $250 travel voucher. We still laught about that trip. It was like a comic movie.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Amid late late night laundry folding and dishes, I am delighted to take a poetry break. Trainku as requested:
A child of Woodstock Lost time means nothing to me. Let the train be late.
That offered - with all due respect to those whose plans are havoced (is that a word? What do I care. I'm a poet...).
And that said - as one who spent 8 hours standing in lines at the Denver airport with 4 and 9 year olds waiting for a promised flight out just before winter holidays. It never came and we all went home. Kids never got to Grandmas.
Illinois darkness I hear gophers giggling Monsters from the Id
My flight circling I can't get up and go pee And no dining car
I wake in the night Stopped on another siding A slow freight passes
Moonlit train platform Vacant, save ghosts of the past Forever waiting
Memorial day Mom recalls following Dad. Wives trains, widows trains.
Hope you like them. Perhaps more than you wanted, but once the muse was awakened, well, she just wanted to stay on the train.
Back to the laundry.
Ira
Posts: 300 | From: Denver, CO USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Great Northern did have a train named the Red River however that ran St Paul-Fargo. Service St Paul-Grand Forks was either on the daylight Dakotan or nighttime Winnipeg Limited; the latter I had occasion to ride June 1965 St Paul-Winnipeg.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Well the one and only time I've ridden the CZ it was right on time. Of course that was 1968 when my bride to be and I rode it from Denver to Bond, CO. As I recall, we had no worries about making the 40 min connection to return on the Yampa Valley mail, also on time.
I guess it's about time to ride the last transcon route we haven't ridden in the Amtrak era.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by palmland: Well the one and only time I've ridden the CZ it was right on time. Of course that was 1968 when my bride to be and I rode it from Denver to Bond, CO. As I recall, we had no worries about making the 40 min connection to return on the Yampa Valley mail, also on time.
I guess it's about time to ride the last transcon route we haven't ridden in the Amtrak era.
It is still every bit as scenic today as it was 40 years ago. Call Julie and go. Bet the special in the dining car will be Chicken Fried Steak.
I actually had that 'special' (as opposed to the one other choice: canned beef stew) descending from Donner Pass on a late California Zephyr when they wound up serving us an extra supper!
Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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The amazing thing about this thread hijacking is that it can all be tied together eventually.
I never had a rail related job, but on my first full time job in the 60's, I did occasionally ride Mr. Norman's Winnipeg Limited home (St. Paul to Minneapolis) rather than endure the city bus.
Though never a Chippendale dancer like Zephyr, I did once show up at an all female baby shower of friends, -posing as the male stripper. But I refused all the offers of dollar bills.
As a compulsive thread hijacker, the threat of Pee Wee Herman tapes does not dissuade me from my crimes. Pee Wee is revered in our household, and our Pee Wee Herman doll has even higher stature than the plastic Pink Flamingos. I would eagerly watch his show, but threaten me with 90 seconds of American Idol and I might turn from my life of crime. No one should ever assume any member of THIS forum shares the values of the sane population.
Though hardly relevent to current CZ performance, I did take the CZ round trip in March 06 (Osceola-Grand Junction) and it ran about 1-2 hours late each way.
And Ira, I do like poetry, especially involving Gophers, as I live in the Gopher state. I think there was an MSP-Duluth train called the Gopher.
And as mentioned in another recent thread, the Golden State used to share cars with the Twin Star Rocket.
Have I forgotten anything?
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote:Originally posted by TwinStarRocket: As a compulsive thread hijacker, the threat of Pee Wee Herman tapes does not dissuade me from my crimes. Pee Wee is revered in our household, and our Pee Wee Herman doll has even higher stature than the plastic Pink Flamingos. I would eagerly watch his show...
I rest my case about posters residing in Zip Code 5.
Posts: 445 | Registered: May 2002
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Despite attempts with ku uplifting, Still I sense the theme is drifting Off to loons, as well as ponies; Perhaps it's Zephyr, and his cronies Seeking to bring hijack the thread From what the originator said. Can no one save it? Elvis (not)? Return unto topic what We started lo long posts ago... Alas, like the CZ, astray we go.
The muse is awake. Groggy but awake. Needs a double decaf espresso.
Ira
Posts: 300 | From: Denver, CO USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Wow, I woke Ira up and he gave us some fantastic stuff. I have to admit, being married to a man of some years, the one about the circling flight hit home. Also love the gophers since I was indeed born in St. Paul and I actually have been spending time watching a loon nest on webcam. Nothing more exciting than watching a bird incubate eggs!
Gilbert - this site, www.gngoat.org, graciously provided by Zephyr, clearly states that the Red River Express ran Grand Forks to the Twin Cities. Is there something I am missing there?
Zephyr, you are picking on Minnesota again. And where do you live? TwinStar will get you someday.
Train Lady - this stuff is what keeps us smiling, right?
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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Zephyr, it is true you never reveal where you live. Something to hide, perhaps? We northlanders can be very tolerant and forgiving. As long as you smile and say the lutefisk is delicious.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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Twin star you did forget the ponies and bagpipers. Vicki where else can one get one's laugh for the day? And to think just last week I was going to ask if anyone knew what happened to Zepher as we hadn't had the benefit of his remarks for some time. My 6th sense is really working well!!!
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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But once she's late, not even BNSF can get her well.
One of the problems is the totality of slow orders across Nevada. Kinda hard to meet 79MPH when you're slow ordered to 30. An Amtrak engineer on another board says some of the problem comes from the state of the Southern Pacific when Mr Anschutz sold it to UP.
Posts: 1404 | Registered: Oct 2001
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By my reckoning, all editions of #'s 5 & 6 were on-time EXCEPT for the #6's in Denver scheduled at 6:58pm on May 27 and again May 29.
On these dates #6 arrived on the next calendar day.
All other CZ's arrived on the same day they were scheduled and therefore were 'on-time'!
(I tried this reasoning with my wife once.....she didn't buy it.)
-------------------- 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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My last trip on the CZ was on 11/30-12/1 W/B from MTP to SLC. Believe it or not, we were one hour EARLY arriving in Salt Lake City. We had to wait for our son to come and pick us up from 10 minutes away. Nice trip, too.
-------------------- Ocala Mike Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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On my April trip on the California Zephyr #5(15), we arrived at Emeryville at 7:04 PM (2 hrs. & 15 mins. late). The Amtrak crew were elated. It was the first time in quite awhile, that they had arrived in daylight.
More about my trip later.
-------------------- Richard T. Posts: 30 | From: Northwest Georgia | Registered: Dec 2006
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I just returned from a trip on #6, departing SAC on Memorial Day, arriving DEN on Tuesday the 29th. It was 3hr 45min late into Denver, almost all of which was lost between Reno and Winnemucca, due to UP's tie replacement project, and a wait for the relief crew, who was still on their rest period. Dining car service was very slow. There was only the Steward and one waiter working. The poor waiter did his best, but just couldn't handle the load, and really got rattled. Dinner extended to 10pm. Other than that, it was a very enjoyable trip. It looks like major holidays are a good time to travel, as freight traffic was minimal all the way to Granby. In June, the CZ will be starting the WY detour.
Posts: 133 | From: Canaan, CT | Registered: Dec 2004
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