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NoCal Fest - Returning to the East Coast


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 22 July 2007 - 07:42 PM

The "main body" of Fest participants is returning to the East Coast via the California Zephyr; Train 6(21) and the Capitol Limited; Train 30(23). We'll track their progess here: (Note: All times "local" at the station.) Sacramento: Departed on-time at 9:09 am, July 21 (reported by Amtrak train status tracker; confirmed by RailHarry) Reno: Arrived a few minutes early at 1:50, 7/21 (reported by Amtrak Train Status, confirmed by RailHarry); departed on-time at 2:11 (reported by Amtrak Train Status) Salt Lake City: Arrived 1 hour early at 3:15 am, 7/22; departed on time at 4:45 am (Amtrak Train Status) The train is on a detour route through Wyoming and Utah; Amtrak Train Status is not providing update information on this alternate route. The train will return to the regular route at Denver. As I'm writing this, the estimated arrival at Denver is on-time at 7:58 pm. Ross

#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 23 July 2007 - 05:25 PM

Another day has passed and we can update the group's progress. First, two comments are in order: 1. It appears the Amtrak Train Status function may have a 1 hour error in reporting train arrivals at stations with scheduled arrival and departure times. After reporting arrival exactly 1 hour early at Salt Lake City yesterday, the reported arrival time at Denver was also exactly 1 hour ahead of the advertised. Cities with only departure times carded seem to have realistic arrival times when they are reported. We'll have to see if the Fest participants can enlighten us. 2. UP's time keeping seemed to be very good. BNSF, on the other hand, has had the train steadily loosing time all day. Here's the times: Denver: departed on time last evening at 8:25 (Amtrak Train Status) Lincoln, NE: Arr 6:11 am (1' 53" late); Dep 6:20 (1' 18" late) (Amtrak Train Status) Omaha, NE: Arr 7:40 am; Dep 8:00 (1" 31" late) (Amtrak Train Status) Galesburg, IL: Arr 3:23 pm; Dep 2:55 (2' 54" late) (Amtrak Train Status) This is the last time currently reported by Amtrak. The estimated arrival in Naperville is at 5:29 (in about 15 minutes). The estimated arrival in Chicago is 6:10, 1' 50" late (time made up due to schedule padding). This would allow them 55 minutes to board the Capitol Limited. Ross

#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 23 July 2007 - 05:58 PM

Amtrak Train Status is now updated showing: Naperville, IL: Arr 5:25; Dep 5:30 (2' 58" late) Chicago: Est Arr 6:03 (1" 43" late) Allowing just over 1 hour to transfer to the Capitol Limited with a scheduled departure at 7:05. Ross +

#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 23 July 2007 - 06:59 PM

Our travelers arrived in Chicago at 6:02 pm, 1' 42" late giving them just over an hour for the Capitol Limited departure.

Here's how they lost (and gained) time since departing Denver (departure times from all stations reporting actual departures in Amtrak Train Status):

Denver: Dep 8:25 pm Mountain Time, 7/22 - on time
-advance clocks 1 hour to comply with Central time
McCook, NE: Dep 1:18 am, 7/23 - late 14"
Holdrege, NE: Dep 2:23 am - late 31"
Hastings, NE: Dep 3:28 am - late 1"18"
Omaha, NE: Dep 8:00 am - late 1' 31"
Osceola, IA: Dep 10:52 am - late 1" 57"
Mount Pleasant, IA: Dep 1:52 pm - late 2" 43"
Burlington, IA: Dep 2:27 pm - late 2' 46"
Galesburg, IL: Dep 3:23 pm - late 2' 54"
Naperville, IL: Dep 5:30 pm - late 2' 58"
Chicago: ARR 6:02 pm - late 1" 42"

Note the schedule padding from Naperville to Chicago. The schedule allows 1' 53" to travel 28 miles. The trip was accomplished today in 32" resulting in a 1' 16" recovery!

Ross

#5 GG-1

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Posted 24 July 2007 - 12:58 AM

Our travelers arrived in Chicago at 6:02 pm, 1' 42" late giving them just over an hour for the Capitol Limited departure.

Ross

Aloha

Interesting to read Ross' track of times, the Chicago arrival seems to reflect how most of the fest went. Mahalo to Kevin's Planning. I sure hope I can make the next Fest! :) :)

An Interesting aside, I did not feel the SF quake, but I return home to find out that Kilauea Volcano's Pu'u O'o crater is erupting for the first time in 15 years, and incredible local video on the news.

#6 KevinKorell

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Posted 24 July 2007 - 08:29 PM

Well except for Skip Howard who is still aboard Amtrak Regional #178 in New England, the rest of us are off the rails and either home or headed there soon. To address the comments Ross made regarding our Chicago connection, let me say that we had enough time to get off Train #6, walk briskly to the Metropolitan Lounge in CUS, and get on line to check in for the lounge. Some in the line actually got to check in and get dinner reservations, while the rest were told to go directly to the exit where boarding for Train #30 was about to begin. Only Jishnu, Michael, and I were actually able to have our bodies come in contact with seats in the lounge for a few seconds at best. So it was a very tight connection which cost me all my fingernails on one hand. UP handled us rather well, featuring early arrivals in both directions. BNSF had issues getting us over the rails quickly, particularly eastbound. And then came our connection in Washington between Train #30 and Regional #178. Norfolk Southern handled us well, delivering us to Pittsburgh a little early. However they had some switch problems in PGH that caused us to depart that station late. Then CSX performed as would be expected, and I lost all the fingernails on my other hand worrying about our connection in WAS. They had to hold #178 for us, and to Amtrak's credit, it was a cross-platform connection on Tracks 23 & 24.


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#7 jacorbett70

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Posted 24 July 2007 - 10:18 PM

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear all the connections were made.

#8 jis

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Posted 25 July 2007 - 12:09 PM

Another day has passed and we can update the group's progress. First, two comments are in order:

1. It appears the Amtrak Train Status function may have a 1 hour error in reporting train arrivals at stations with scheduled arrival and departure times. After reporting arrival exactly 1 hour early at Salt Lake City yesterday, the reported arrival time at Denver was also exactly 1 hour ahead of the advertised. Cities with only departure times carded seem to have realistic arrival times when they are reported. We'll have to see if the Fest participants can enlighten us.

The actual arrival in SLC was at around 2:30am as told to me by our coach attendant. I woke up at around 3am and went out for a walk and took some night time pictures of our train. Went back to sleep at around 4:30am.

The actual arrival in DEN was at around 6:30pm, give or take a few minutes. So apparently Amtrak is unable to report arrivals more than one hour early :) Heck Kevin was already riding the RTD and I had already got cash out of the ATM and was well on my way to Market Street by 6:58pm which would be the time of arrival if it were exactly one hour early.

Jishnu

#9 jis

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Posted 25 July 2007 - 05:21 PM

Here's how they lost (and gained) time since departing Denver (departure times from all stations reporting actual departures in Amtrak Train Status):

Denver: Dep 8:25 pm Mountain Time, 7/22 - on time
-advance clocks 1 hour to comply with Central time
McCook, NE: Dep 1:18 am, 7/23 - late 14"
Holdrege, NE: Dep 2:23 am - late 31"
Hastings, NE: Dep 3:28 am - late 1"18"
Omaha, NE: Dep 8:00 am - late 1' 31"
Osceola, IA: Dep 10:52 am - late 1" 57"
Mount Pleasant, IA: Dep 1:52 pm - late 2" 43"
Burlington, IA: Dep 2:27 pm - late 2' 46"
Galesburg, IL: Dep 3:23 pm - late 2' 54"
Naperville, IL: Dep 5:30 pm - late 2' 58"
Chicago: ARR 6:02 pm - late 1" 42"

Note the schedule padding from Naperville to Chicago. The schedule allows 1' 53" to travel 28 miles. The trip was accomplished today in 32" resulting in a 1' 16" recovery!

Ross


We got killed by freight congestion between Holdrege and Hastings, and Osceola and Mt. Pleasant. There also were signal problems between Omaha and Osceola. All in all BNSF was having a bad day.

Here are some passing times between Galesburg and Chicago:

Galesburg: 3:19pm - 3:23pm
Kewanee: 3:47pm
Princeton: 4:11pm - 4:13pm
Mendota: 4:29pm
Plano: 5:03pm
Aurora: 5:17pm (middle track from Aurora to Naperville)
Naperville: 5:28pm - 5:30pm
Lisle: 5:34pm
Belmont: 5:36pm
Downers Grove: 5:37pm
Hinsdale: 5:40pm
Le Grange: 5:43pm
Brookfield: 5:44pm
Cicero: 5:48pm
Halstead: 5:54pm
CUS: 6:02pm

On the Wyoming portion of the Eastbound trip I was asleep after my midnight photographic adventure at SLC :) or busy socializing and/or breakfasting, until the Continental Divide . From then on the passing times to Denver were (may be off by upto 3 minutes from Amtrak official time):

Creston: 11:22 (near Continental Divide)
Rawlins: 11:52
Buford: 14:32
Borie: 14:57
Spear: 15:06 - 1532
Spear Jct. 1534
[control wires down so switches had to be thrown by hand and operations were under Form D or flagmen]
[we crossed a steam powered UP special between Spear Jct. and Pierce]
Pierce: 16:54
Lucerne: 17:03
Greeley: 17:10
La Salle: 17:20
Denver: 18:30 [after going through the Y and pushing backwards into the station as usual]

[P42 199 was the protect engine that was parked at Denver. Our engineer went to it and powered it up and let it run for a while and then shut it down.]

More later.




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