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My friend "Canaveral" is currently on train 7(19), the westbound Empire Builder. He called at 9:30pm ET from LaCrosse, WI to notify that he just heard on his scanner that a freight derailment has just occurred at a place called Weaver just north of Winona, MN. The timing is good as the Builder will detour via the BNSF line along the east side of the Mississippi River to St. Paul. The train will back out of the LaCrosse station to the junction with BNSF. There was mention of a relief crew from St. Cloud so they must anticipate the crew going on the law at some point. When he called they were preparing to remove passengers bound for Winona and Red Wing as they will have to be given alternate transportation to those missed stops. This would have been a far bigger problem if # 7 had already crossed the river.
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Train 7(16)suffered a huge delay due to a grade crossing accident a couple days ago. It ran through to SE and PDX arriving about 8 hours late. This threw off the departures of 8(18) and 28(18) an though as much as 5 hr 40 min late, # 8 is currently a shade over 4 hr late. It's a bad week on the Builder line.
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The "service disruption" icon popped up on the status map quickly as it was there within 20 minutes of when I learned of the situation. Things probably were in the works earlier. As for Canaveral, there should be few issues as he has an Ambus to Vancouver with a 3 1/2 hr layover plus there are more buses and the evening Talgo as backups. He wisely built in a day leeway in VAC before his Alaska cruise so no worries.
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I've had the chance to ride the former Burlington line (on the other side of the river) between Minneapolis and LaCrosse a couple of times now thanks to 'Friends of the 261' excursions. It's a great ride.
-------------------- 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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They had to cross the Mississippi to wye the train at LaCrosse as the connector from the former CMSP&P to the old CB&Q is on the northwest quadrant of the junction. Thus they crossed the river twice and lost a couple hours making that move, transferring passengers, and picking up a relief crew and pilot. 7(19) has steadily remained about 3 hours late since then as it makes its way across Montana. They met 7(16) at Grand Forks at 6:30am but otherwise have lost the best scenery as they will traverse Glacier Park at night.
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Circumstances dictate itinerary but this is why I normally prefer to ride the Empire Builder eastbound.
-------------------- 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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They arrived Seattle under 2 hours late. Too bad about Glacier Park. I've ridden westbound three times and never had an issue with lateness.
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