Impressive handling by Amtrak

[williamn]

Currently on a train from New York to Washington. We stopped outside a station and were told there was a medical emergency on the train ahead. The loco has run around to the rear of the train, pulled us back, and we'll shortly continue on another track. Not sure this would happen in the UK, I can imagine we'd just sit here for hours...

 

[Flamingo]

Currently on a train from New York to Washington. We stopped outside a station and were told there was a medical emergency on the train ahead. The loco has run around to the rear of the train, pulled us back, and we'll shortly continue on another track. Not sure this would happen in the UK, I can imagine we'd just sit here for hours...

No, you'd sit there for days, and then have to push the train back to the previous station urged on by the guard with a whip and cattle-prod :roll:

In the UK, the loco would not have to run around to the other end, the train would be capable of being driven from either end.

 

[williamn]

No, you'd sit there for days, and then have to push the train back to the previous station urged on by the guard with a whip and cattle-prod :roll:

In the UK, the loco would not have to run around to the other end, the train would be capable of being driven from either end.

I was thinking back to a recent incident on the West Coast where the up line was blocked by a landslip (or may have been power line failure, my memory fails me) but the down was clear, just north of Carlisle. Glasgow bound trains continued to pass us by but rather than doing single line operation we simply reversed back to Glasgow and terminated.

 

[Flamingo]

I was thinking back to a recent incident on the West Coast where the up line was blocked by a landslip (or may have been power line failure, my memory fails me) but the down was clear, just north of Carlisle. Glasgow bound trains continued to pass us by but rather than doing single line operation we simply reversed back to Glasgow and terminated.

I don't know that neck of the woods, but not all lines are reversible, and even if they are, setting up reversible working or single line working seriously restricts the number of trains that can run over a stretch of line, it might be as few as one or two an hour in each direction. The main risk is having two trains on the same stretch going towards each other, and the work involved in making 100% sure this doesn't happen is surprisingly complicated (and yet quite simple in concept).

Anyway, I hope you make it to DC in time for supper.

 

[williamn]

Impressively only running 20 behind currently.

 

[LexyBoy]

I think somewhere like the upper WCML would be very restricted by single-line working and that it would probably cause more disruption than it solved.

Something like this has happened to me at Didcot when signalling problems prevented using the nomal route, so the train (HST) continued on the down main before reversing up the western curve past the power station.