Two Hours Later - Look, Another pine tree.....no...wait....it's the SAME tree.
I made a weekend roundtrip from Rocky Mount, NC to Baltimore, MD in hopes of snagging some bonus Amtrak Guest Reward Points as part of the National Train Day promotion. I rode northward Saturday in coach on the Silver Star and returned in Business Class aboard the Palmetto Sunday.
The northbound trip was notable in that there was nothing of significance to report. As discussed here the train is now running with sleepers on the rear, we were within 20 minutes of the advertised schedule most of the day, and the crew members were all efficient....some even warm and engaging. My coach was about 2/3rds full so I had both seats to myself for the entire trip and we did not stop to meet a freight train at any point during the trip.....again, we have discussed the decrease in freight traffic in recent months as well.
The return trip, however, was hardly routine.....
Mother's Day dawned nicely and my wakeup call came right at 6:15am at the BWI Red Roof Inn. (I had earned a free night with them through their frequent guest program). Red Roof's staff shuttled me over to the BWI Rail Station where I caught the northbound Vermonter for a quick ride into Baltimore Penn Station. (Sidebar - I've ALWAYS wanted to ride the Vermonter. Maybe next time I will ride it in VERMONT!) My only brief observation was that half the seats in each coach were facing rearward. Intentional perhaps as this train reverses direction of travel en route?
In Baltimore Penn I had a bagle from the only open food establishment, a tiny coffee bar located in what looked like a broom closet. The station cafe, it seems, has ceased operation altogether however a sign in the lone newstand was seeking individuals interested in franchising a Dunkin' Donut shop at Penn Station.....perhaps there is a ray of hope.
For some years now when making a daytrip to the Carolinas from the DC area I have made it a practice to board the train in Baltimore. There is rarely a crowd boarding for points south here.....unlike the tourist stampede through the chute departing Washington Union Station each day. My strategy paid dividends as only 2 of the 15 available business class seats were occupied when I boarded the train. Business Class on the Palmetto is in a first generation Amfleet Lounge car and the seats are in a 2-1 configuration in the front third of the car. I selected seat #1, the forwardmost single seat on the right side of the train.
These cars offer a supurb ride when the train is moving without confusion or delay.....which we did until about 11:00am just south of the Fredericksburg, VA station. We ground to a halt and had an immediate PA announcement about 'encountering mechanical difficulties'. We began moving again after a 20 minute delay, made the Richmond, VA station stop, and moved about 200 yards southward before stopping for another 20 minutes while the northbound Silver Star cleared Acca Yard.
By the time we departed Petersburg, VA we were 40 minutes late and the train was about 90% full. There were 14 passengers in Business Class, 3 of them a family of Hilton Head type people yearning for a railroad adventure. They got more than they bargained for and by the time I left the train they were whining loudly about this being their first and LAST Amtrak trip.
About 15 minutes later, just south of the old Petersburg Collier Yard and just barely into single track territory, we ground to a halt and sat for about 15 minutes with no announcement. Then the PA sqawked with an apology for the delay and said something about trying to correct still unspecified 'mechanical difficulties'. Then the HEP died. In the distance we could hear futile attempts to start a diesel locomotive. (Sidebar - the recipe for a hostile crowd begins with stranding 300 people on a train with no air conditioning in a southern PINE forest on a very warm day and not giving them sufficient information about the nature of the problem and what is being done to correct it.)
After 20 minutes the HEP is restored and the train whistles off about 10 minutes after that. The conductor passes through with grease smeared on one of his sleeves. His day was shot already and it was just beginning to....um.....go south.
About 30 minutes, more-or-less, later we stalled out again.....just below Emporia, VA. This time the HEP failed immediately. Another 30 minutes were lost while we sat, again in single track territory. The conductor, looking somewhat frazzled now, emerged from the bowels of the locomotive with new grease smears covering his back and other sleeve. We started, made it up to track speed, and then....just a minute or two later....heard a loud pop as the train went into emergency stop brake application. The HEP and locomotive both died. Loud grumbling from angry and perspiring passengers as we took another 20 minute delay. This time nothing was said on the PA and the crew kind of circled the wagons. They had nothing (good) to tell us and they were determined to not say anything for fear of inciting a riot.
Our next disablement occured just below the North Carolina State Line as we limped into a sidetrack where the locomotive and HEP went down again. The Carolinian, scheduld an hour later and now an hour late beyond that because it had been stuck behind us pulled alongside and stopped. A conductor and engineer hop off, eyeball our situation, shake their heads with some empathy to our crew, and then take off with their lovely, moving passenger train.
We sit. Freight trains roll past. We perspire.
We stew.
A note about our crew - they tried to do their jobs BUT they were not particularly engaging of the passengers from the beginning. For example, in Business Class no offer of a complimentary newspaper was made (we found the undistributed stack during one of the delays and helped ourselves) nor was anything said about complimentary beverages. Those of us who knew to ask got a massive 8 ounce can of soda.....those who didn't know to ask initially got nothing. Moreover, both the Lounge Attendant and one of the Conductors had family or girlfriend or whatever riding along. These guests, along with the usual conductor ticket sorting, tied up 3 of the 6 available lounge car tables for the entire afternoon. Again....crew shortcomings would have been acceptable if the trip were otherwise going smoothly.......but these shortcomings caused the passengers to turn on them when things went horribly wrong.
Soooooooo......we started moving again after a time....who really cares how long it was....and ground to a halt one more time just north of the bridge at Weldon, NC. Here we sat for about an hour as more freight trains whizzed by. The sun was beginning to drop in the west and those pine trees mercifully blocked the worst of it's rays from my window. The PA rattles with apologies (greeted by passengers yelling "we don't want anymore apologies....we want to go home!"), makes mention again of 'mechanical difficulties' and this time adds that there is a 'mechanical team' coming from the shop in Rocky Mount to try and correct the 'mechanical difficulties'. Did they arrive? Perhaps. They had time to. Finally, about 5:00pm the locomotive starts and the HEP roars to life. We run fast and hard all the way to Rocky Mount arriving just shy of 4 hours late. Hostile passengers surged off the train for unauthorized smoke breaks and the crew wisely choose not to try to fight them on this.
Some Conclusions - Amtrak again came across looking woefully unprepared yesterday. It seemd as if there was no one up the chain with the authority or the courage to make some key decisions that would have better kept the peace with a trainload of passengers. By the time the Carolinian passed us, the Palmetto crew had been aware that there was a problem for four hours.....going back to 60 miles north of Richmond. Yet no one checked it out in Richmond.
At one point we sat less than two miles from a small yard where 3 older CSX diesels (ie: from the late 1970's) idled unused. I've seen freight locomotives assist disabled Amtrak trains before. What prevented that from happening this time? Did Amtrak not want to pony up the money for a 'loaner'? Would being towed have damaged our locomotive further? We could have accepted that if it were the case and been told as much. Why were the passengers not filled in? Likely because there was no one higher up filling our crew in.
Bustitution - that happens frequently in the spring here as CSX does maintenance shutdowns. Surely Amtrak has contacts already with a friendly local charter bus operator who could have sent 5 or 6 buses to the grade crossing just behind our markers.
What about the prospect of the Carolinian picking us up and carrying us as standees for 45 minutes to Rocky Mount where the Palmetto's passengers could have waited out the delay in a nice station with working air-conditioning. THAT would have been more humane than a couple more hours on a hot, motionless train which had already stood motionless in various places for two hours.
The issue is - things will go wrong and the true measure of an organization is how they deal with things when they go wrong......moreso than whether things go wrong in the first place. Low marks for Amtrak yesterday. High marks for CSX who, once we did get moving, moved us as quickly as they could weaving us past several of the southbound freight trains which had passed us while we were disabled.
On a personal note - I like riding trains and will continue to do so. I find myself more and more gravitating towards special excursions and favorite tourist railroads however. Even before this experience I was losing interest in riding Amtrak through the Carolina Pines (Channel Gibert B. Norman "If you've seen one pine tree, you've seen them all") because I've done that ride so many times. I think I would have rather flown from RDU to BWI, ridden the Capitol Limited to Chicago, and flown back to RDU from there. Enough of CSX btween Rocky Mount and Richmond for me.
More to the point - I ride trains for entertainment and hopefully I'll win permission for a July excursion out of the Twin Cities that I have my eye on. That permission is kind of in doubt at the moment because I failed to deliver a promised Mother's Day Dinner out with my wife yesterday while I was foolishly delayed for hours aboard the Palmetto somewhere north of Rocky Mount.....
I'll ride again once I'm out of the dog house. I'm not sure how many of the other folks with me yesterday will ever do the same though.
Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :
Thank you for this.
Memo to Mr Boardman: Customer service matters. That includes taking your passengers to their contracted destination. Equipment failures are wholly avoidable operational incidents, not acts of God.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
quote:Originally posted by PullmanCo: Thank you for this.
Memo to Mr Boardman: Customer service matters. That includes taking your passengers to their contracted destination. Equipment failures are wholly avoidable operational incidents, not acts of God.
To be fair, train 89 continued beyond Rocky Mount without further incident and arrived at it's final destination about three and one half hours late.
Normally I plan my trips so that a late train impacts only myself. I failed to do so this time.
But then, the average passenger doesn't know to plan accordingly in the first place.
Posted by Ocala Mike (Member # 4657) on :
David:
Now that you're sleeping on the couch, you'll probably have plenty of time to write a nice long letter to Mr. Boardman detailing your above experiences. Don't leave out the "pine tree" references and the reason you're in the dog house; who knows, maybe he'll send you some more points or a free trip. Posted by train lady (Member # 3920) on :
David this sounds very familiar. Several years ago three of us left DC for Charleston, SC on the Palmetto. When we got to Fredricksburg the engine broke down and they sent us on by bus. It was june and the temp in the 90s. There was no air condition and the bus limped along to Richmond. There we were put on other busses which also had deficient air so we got off and on to another one. That one also had AC problems. Since CSX was fixing the tracks we were supposed to be bussed from Richmond to Rocky Mount a little detail we weren't told about when we bought our tickets. At any rate we arrived in Rockey Mount very late and were finally transferred to the train . Arrival in Charleston instead of 6:45 was !1 AM. As you can imagine we were not thrilled and my s-i-l still calls it the trip from the underworld. I did call Amtrak and express my anger in rather unladylike terms I am afraid. They did refund the business class amount of our tickets.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
quote:Originally posted by notelvis: Two Hours Later - Look, Another pine tree.....no...wait....it's the SAME tree......Even before this experience I was losing interest in riding Amtrak through the Carolina Pines (Channel Gibert B. Norman "If you've seen one pine tree, you've seen them all")
Mr. Presley, if you want a "good Pine Tree", load your Stihl into the bed of your F-150, set your Sat/Nav to 1500 Market St Roswell GA, and there you'll find a good Pine Tree - a Fallen Pine Tree.
Unless, they have taken it away over the past two weeks, I'm sure the Marriott Courtyard would consider you are doing them a favor.
There are some parking spots at that hotel that are simply too close to those things; at least for my buggy; their soft timber means they do not hold well in any kind of windsotrm - and North Central Georgia has had their share of such lately (but the drought has been abated).
Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :
Do let us know when, errrrr. if ever you are let out of the doghouse.
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
Interesting story. One question regarding the use of freight engines: do they have HEP? If not then you may have gotten to your destination sooner but still sweaty.
Another idea, if possible, is that the Carolinian drag your train as far as it could - which is better from a dispatching point of view anyway (less paths; one less siding blocked).
Geoff M.
Posted by Dakguy201 (Member # 10360) on :
No, a freight engine can not produce HEP. In this situation, I could have moved the train toward its destination but done nothing about the air conditioning.
Depending on what the fault was, it is possible it might not have recurred if the load on the crippled engine was just the power necessary to provide HEP, however.
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
That's what I thought, re HEP. I was once on a 5-hour late Sunset whose HEP failed about 3 hours outside of LA (hence late morning Californian sunshine). They chose to continue to LA rather than try to fix it, which I think most passengers agreed with - though it also meant the toilets were out of action. Fortunately we suffered no further delays.
Geoff M.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
quote:Originally posted by Geoff M: Interesting story. One question regarding the use of freight engines: do they have HEP? If not then you may have gotten to your destination sooner but still sweaty.
Another idea, if possible, is that the Carolinian drag your train as far as it could - which is better from a dispatching point of view anyway (less paths; one less siding blocked).
Geoff M.
No....the freight locomotive could not have generated HEP (head-end power) but as Dakguy notes, sitting on a moving train with no AC is preferable to sitting on a stopped train with no AC.
I also wondered if it would have been possible for the Carolinian to drag us as far as Rocky Mount where CSX has a shop and there would have been qualified mechanics available.....as in already at work and not having to be called in on a Sunday. The irony here is that I ordinarily would have returned south on the Carolinian BUT chose the Palmetto instead for it's earlier scheduled arrival.
Mr. Norman, I could always use some good firewood but, sadly, I have never owned anything approaching the size of an F-150! Now perhaps my brother-in-law would be interested!
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ocala Mike: David:
Now that you're sleeping on the couch, you'll probably have plenty of time to write a nice long letter to Mr. Boardman detailing your above experiences. Don't leave out the "pine tree" references and the reason you're in the dog house; who knows, maybe he'll send you some more points or a free trip.
It is also not a good idea, by-the-way, when your wife mentions what she would like for her birthday to say "great. I can use my Chase credit card and get some Amtrak Guest Reward Points with that!"
Posted by Steve O. (Member # 2993) on :
Amtrak is very much "hit or miss" in terms of making timely announcements to the passengers when a long delay is taking place. It really varies by crew, unfortunately. When I worked for the airlines, if the plane had a delay for whatever reason, we had to make announcements every 15 minutes to update the waiting crowd, even if we received no new information. From my experience...they appreciated the effort.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
I guess I should acknowledge that I do I have two Pine Trees, 6' and 14' respectively, (maybe they're be Balsams; you can tell how worried I am about that) on my property. In fact, when one succumbed a few years ago, I paid the landscaper some $300 to have it replaced.
Am I about to go and join a Pine Tree Lover's discussion board?....well.......
However, within the past five years two neighbors have removed Pine Trees from their property. Even if "DIY" is not exactly part of my neighborhood's culture (I forgot how to cut grass maybe twenty five years ago), one neighbor actually played George Washington himself.
Naturally, if my 100' Chinese Elm decided to leave this world, I'd be of differing thoughts.
Oh and hello Steve O; adios Native Son?
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
Sounds like Amtrak once again did their best to make a bad situation worse. As you know, I enjoy my jaunts on the Palmetto in business class. Now if you take a faulty engine out of the mix, it sounds like it was an OK trip in both directions.
While that is a big 'if', the solution sounds simple. If this is occurring with any regularity, run the Palmetto with two engines like the other Silver service trains. While this might seem like a waste of a good engine, if Amtrak is unable to keep their locomotives in good repair, it would be one way to improve reliability.
Taking this trip on mothers day does seem a somewhat risky plan. Perhaps you could have taken your wife and enjoyed mothers day brunch in the inner harbor and taken a roomette on the Silver Star back home?
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
quote:Originally posted by palmland: Sounds like Amtrak once again did their best to make a bad situation worse. As you know, I enjoy my jaunts on the Palmetto in business class. Now if you take a faulty engine out of the mix, it sounds like it was an OK trip in both directions.
While that is a big 'if', the solution sounds simple. If this is occurring with any regularity, run the Palmetto with two engines like the other Silver service trains. While this might seem like a waste of a good engine, if Amtrak is unable to keep their locomotives in good repair, it would be one way to improve reliability.
Taking this trip on mothers day does seem a somewhat risky plan. Perhaps you could have taken your wife and enjoyed mothers day brunch in the inner harbor and taken a roomette on the Silver Star back home?
Yes Palmland, minus a faulty engine it would have otherwise been a good trip.
Faulty engines and other issues have plagued the silver service trains with such regularity, however, that you would think that Amtrak would have established some fallback procedures by now. Two locomotives would be a good start but then not even the Star and Meteor run with two engines all of the time. My northbound Star had a single diesel.
In retrospect, I should have flown from BWI back to RDU Saturday evening rather than trusted a single minute of Mother's Day to Amtrak. The wife has been burned by Silver Service engine failures too and will no longer board Amtrak trains except under tightly controlled circumstances. I may one day get her back on the Auto-Train.....maybe.
We once made a trip to Colorado flying both directions, sightseeing for a week, and spending one afternoon on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. While that solitary 18 mile rail foray was very pleasant, it has caused the entire trip to be remembered by my wife as 'another one of your train trips'.
You can count my wife as a reasonable member of the general public who has been burned by Amtrak's unreliability one time too many and will not eagerly board another train under any circumstances. There are a lot of people like that out there.
Posted by RR4me (Member # 6052) on :
"But then, the average passenger doesn't know to plan accordingly in the first place".
That sums up all that's wrong with Amtrak. I fit in your demographic with regard to taking the train for the sake of taking the train. And I also plan accordingly. But as one other poster noted, Amtrak is in the business of getting people to their destinations on time, as published. Their customers should not have to "plan accordingly" as a matter of course. Amtrak can use up all the money they can get, but until this goal takes priority, they'll never really be a serious part of the US public's tansportation network for mid to long range trips.
Posted by SouthernServesTheSouth (Member # 2284) on :
notelvis, this mothers day I was onboard the Cardinal when we got delayed and bussed around a derailment on the BBRR between Clifton Forge and Charlottesville. My wife was onboard with me, so I avoided the "delay revenge". It did delay her celebration with our daughter and grandson. They were waiting in CVS to deliver her gifts. Our grandson couldn't understand why we got off a bus and not the train.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
quote:Originally posted by SouthernServesTheSouth: notelvis, this mothers day I was onboard the Cardinal when we got delayed and bussed around a derailment on the BBRR between Clifton Forge and Charlottesville. My wife was onboard with me, so I avoided the "delay revenge". It did delay her celebration with our daughter and grandson. They were waiting in CVS to deliver her gifts. Our grandson couldn't understand why we got off a bus and not the train.
Wow. What misfortune.
I had considered trying to do something using the Cardinal (which is a more interesting route I think) but passed simply because I wanted to be on a train SATURDAY for the AGR quadruple points.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)