Amtrak to detour on the MD-N Dec. 10

MikeF wrote:What are the odds of a long-haul Amtrak train being on-time, though?

Slim to none and slim just walked out the door. Just kidding about my joke.

When I saw #8(2) on Sun 4 Dec 2005 at 14:52, it appeared to be moving at a full 79 mi/h and was just under 7 miles (railroad) west of Glenview, where it was scheduled at 15:00. According to amtrak.com it arrived 3 minutes early in Glenview and arrived 16 minutes before its scheduled 15:40 arrival at Chicago Union Station. Presumably train #28 arrived nearly as early.

BNSF and CP generally seem to treat Amtrak well.

Checking the recent data on amtrak.com for #8 at CHI, by arrival date (origin is two days earlier):

6 Dec, 63 min late
5 Dec, 82 min late
4 Dec, 16 min early
3 Dec, 10 min early
2 Dec, 78 min late (perhaps due to blizards out west?)

Only the previous 5 days of origins (thus the three most recent arrivals) are available on the web. I will try to update this throughout the week leading up to 10 December.

IF 8 is late then Metra can assign a pilot to 7 and run 7 Rondout to Grays Lake then meet 8 at Round Lake Beach (2 MT there). Same pilot could then take 8 in. A Metra pilot called out of the Fox Lake extra board will be qualified on both CP and CN lines (as far north as Antioch). The decisions will be finalized as 8's movement is tracked during the day. Best plan to catch the moves is to have the scanner on and be patient. (scanner AAR 44 CP and AAR 79 CN) CP C&M dispatcher will be issuing movement authority over the radio for Amtrak over the Fox Lake Sub. Another consideration is the regular scoot schedule on the Fox Lake Sub - which may disrupt any logical plan developed given the above considerations...as there is no siding to set up a meet between Rondout and Grays Lake, unless you stuff a w.b. scoot into Junction Switch (industrial lead in Libertyville) - but I've never heard of anything like that happening before...

Chris Czyzewski
amateur operations planner
Grayslake