In CA, Amtrak California’s Capital Corridor seems to do a better job with on time performance - despite using BNSF/UP trackage. Oakland and Benicia were the two bottlenecks.
How do trains make up for lost time?
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This is from a trip I took up the coast in 2013. Train was a bit late but made decent time despite being out in the ocean...
Ill bet it didnt, very rare for Japanese to alter protocol like that.
On my Shinkasen trip someone suicided, they handed us a letter upon exit ostensibly to excuse the lateness to our employers
So how is the general cleanliness on the Amtrak trains? I can pick up the Empire Builder in Sandpoint Idaho and take it to Seattle but the train would originate in Chicago a couple days before. Are there cleaners working on the train while it travels?
Not too bad I took a Sacramento to LA trip in May. I did not see any rolling cleaners, but my little suite type thing was clean.
I don't think US trains will let delay make them run any faster (legal liability), but they may stop for a shorter time on each stop to make up. My wife used to take the train along the SF peninsula and it runs late all the time, they just delay the arrival (the rest of the schedule all got pushed back) until the "traffic back pressure" got cleared out after rush hours.
traindrivers get fined for breaking speedlimits, did he admit to it on camera? the speeds are logged too
as long as the landing is sheduled
I worked on the railroad years ago. I had a shuttle run between 2 points that was impossible to keep up with. When I finally got back to my starting point for the next shuttle I was exactly on time for departure, but I had never made the previous trip. The previous trip simply ‘went away’ and I was back on schedule. All Aboard!
They do that all across NA as well (the speeding part, not always the not ending well part thankfully
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That works awesome for making up time on a racetrack, not so much with a train.
My MIL takes Amtrak train from Buffalo NY to Milwaukee WI once or twice a year. They are horrible. Always late. Once they hit a car at a crossing, so thats not their fault. But before they got to Chicago the driver/conductor? ran out of his daily hours. They had to stop the train in BFE and wait for them to bring out a new driver.
But she is never on time. I have her call me when she crosses state line and I head toward station.
We to be honest, most stuff around here runs through Chicago and Chicago screws everything up. The airport there, Ohare, is the worst Ive ever been to. I pay extra to fly out other places.
But she is never on time. I have her call me when she crosses state line and I head toward station.
We to be honest, most stuff around here runs through Chicago and Chicago screws everything up. The airport there, Ohare, is the worst Ive ever been to. I pay extra to fly out other places.
AFAIK, all trains in the US run what would be called "fully fitted" in the UK-i.e. everything has brakes. I'm not sure if this is just an accepted norm or an FRA mandate, but the braking power is certainly there. Of course the stopping distance is still plenty long, but at least you have every rolling wheel working on it. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, there are also automated ways that if a long train goes into emergency, valves open that start dumping air from the brake line at the back of the train to speed brake application(Westinghouse-type air brakes use a pressurized air line running the length of the train that's held at constant pressure-normally 90 psi-and any reduction in line pressure signals brake application. A sudden drop to atmospheric signals "emergency" but when your train is a mile long it can take a while for the line to vent the entire length).
Maximum speeds are primarily dictated by track conditions. Trains typically run as close as possible to max speed since time=money.
I recall it was 5 bar way back when. But not in the UK or US. There's also an issue when you release the brakes and get back on the throttle too early. The back part of the train could still be braking, and the locomotive can pull a train apart.
Here the speed is determined by braking distance and the distance between signals. The train must be able to stop in the distance between 2 signals. The maximum speed is not determined by the engineer though, that calculation has been done before, and is on the work order.
Once had a loco with a failing speedo. Instead of doing 120 kph which is the limit we were doing 160. First thought was the brakes were a bit weak but soon started counting time between signals and realised we were going a tad fast....
Edit, now Im not sure, could have been 6 bar...
Here the speed is determined by braking distance and the distance between signals. The train must be able to stop in the distance between 2 signals. The maximum speed is not determined by the engineer though, that calculation has been done before, and is on the work order.
Once had a loco with a failing speedo. Instead of doing 120 kph which is the limit we were doing 160. First thought was the brakes were a bit weak but soon started counting time between signals and realised we were going a tad fast....
Edit, now Im not sure, could have been 6 bar...
anyway, chris142 still waiting at the train station?
Amtrak cars look like the have disc brakes...Stop on a dime...
yes, passenger trains often have disc brakes, but they are still limited to the steel on steel friction coefficient of the wheels on the rails.
Just as an aside, speed limits on the vast majority of Class I track in the US is 79mph. This is due to the FRA requirements for the equipment and right of way maintenance at speeds higher than that. The Northeast corridor is the obvious exception to this statement.
All of the modern passenger cars and passenger locomotives have disc brakes. The two new passenger locomotives introduced in the past 10 years, the EMD F125 and the Siemens Charger, are both equipped with disc and tread brakes, and both are certified to run up to 125mph, although in practice they never do, due to infrastructure limits as mentioned above. The EMD has a CAT C175-20 4 stroke engine and the Siemens a Cummins QSK95 4 stroke.
All of the modern passenger cars and passenger locomotives have disc brakes. The two new passenger locomotives introduced in the past 10 years, the EMD F125 and the Siemens Charger, are both equipped with disc and tread brakes, and both are certified to run up to 125mph, although in practice they never do, due to infrastructure limits as mentioned above. The EMD has a CAT C175-20 4 stroke engine and the Siemens a Cummins QSK95 4 stroke.
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