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Definitely sounds like some winter cuts are coming from sometime in the next couple weeks to late March (sounds like 29th would be target date of service restoration. ) Meteor is showing “sold out” on Amtrak website from next week until March 28. There's a report on Facebook (one of the Amtrak grou...

Nah doubt it, pay them more they would still find a way to prong Amtrak. A few reasons off the top of my head. They do not like to slow their stuff down they will say too much fuel to get them back up to speed burn up to many brake shoes, dynamic brake grids slowing them down. Maintaining the physi...

My guess is that Iowa Pacific was run by a group of railfans who got themselves in over their heads. Big dreams need BIG money. The only "railfan" I know of who could pull that off is a guy named Warren. Rooting around in his sofa cushions one night he came up with 70 Billion dollars to bu...

The question came up in a local railroad forum: <p> Is it possible to run across the USA from coast to coast, only on double track (not on the same company's track all the way, obviously)? Or are there any gaps? I'm going to stick my neck out and say NO, there is no through coast to coast double tr...

The long-term goal is to have MARC trains get out of the way of Amtrak trains before NCR and onto a new platform off Track 1. There looks to be enough room to build said platform there, although getting an elevator, escalator, and stairs there will likely require reworking the waiting area (which h...

At one time one of the options for expansion had all the food court and environs be converted to additional tracks and platform to have a real lower level under tracks 5 -14 (?). that would have also called for another 1st avenue 2 track tunnel to go to near Va avenue. Believe that option is off th...

You wouldn’t need a new substation, but you would need a new switching station and additional 13kV feeders from North Point and Chase Substations. One of the reasons why the HHP-8s were so unreliable is because the switching station at Union Station used to only be fed from Landover Sub, and the br...

Has anyone seen or heard how Hanson, the new interlocking near Landover, is progressing? Andy I haven't heard anything yet, but I won't be surprised if it's already complete. It's been 2+ years since the last time I was going down there by MARC. Looking at Landover interlocking on Google satellite ...

Did the far end of GROVE interlocking ever have more crossovers at the southern entrance to the MoW yard? There’s an old signal bridge south of the yard; was that part of GROVE at some point? Will Amtrak remove it when they conduct their next big track work project in this area? Grove was a new bui...

Used to be fed from only Landover? This has changed? Long story on how Washington Terminal and Ivy City were fed from Landover. Back when the PRR electrified the line into Washington the transmission lines ran a roundabout route from Landover to Union Station. From Landover they ran along the freig...

How often does Amtrak do rail replacements on the plain line sections in the stations? I’ve noticed that some of the rail heads are looking worn and either need replacing, or at least some form of rail grinding to clean them up. Regarding th rebuilding of Odenton station for four tracks, my prefere...

HHP8 691 is currently in DC to be utilized as a test train for HHP8 cab car use (without its pantographs) for alleged service on the Vermonter and Ethen Allen. Look for 90691 to be on the roster, should this "experiment" prove successful. Since Amtrak has previously "had their knuckl...

Question - is the Daily News right in saying that the Portal Bridge(s) does not need to be super high, could be much lower, openable for the once in a while traffic underneath, and cost maybe 10% of what is planned? And could all 4 tracks worth of bridge be built together? One of the things Amtrak ...

Running up and down the east coast, out to Chicago and New Orleans from NYC every day racks up more miles than the 500 or so miles doing a roundtrip from NYC-WAS. A NEC round trip DC to Boston would be around 1,000 miles per day. Amfleet 1. A train running for 24 hours at around 50 mph average spee...

I'm guessing your request to visit the center would be turned down as public tours of dispatching centers are generally not given. Now having said that I was able to visit the center back in May of 2013. At that time I was both a former Amtrak dispatcher (CETC Philadelphia) and an active dispatcher ...