by doepack
For those who may not have heard, a disabled freight train tied up Metra traffic on the Geneva subdivision for several hours last night. The culprit was a freight train that went into emergency just west of the River Forest depot, turns out it had a broken knuckle somewhere in the consist. Metra 63 was stuck behind him, and it stayed there for over two hours while the freight crew dealt with the problem; eventually Proviso had to get involved to finally get the train moving. As the delay stretched on, UP commuter control toyed with the idea of dropping off the passengers and turning the train back downtown, but another freight train had pulled up behind 63, effectively nixing that idea.
The only bright spot in this whole ordeal was that commuter control was able to call a crew for train 71, which would've been run later that evening by 63's crew. Even though they were over two hours late into Elburn, they were actually able to tie up and go home two hours early, since 511 was right behind them, and would resume their normal schedule as 512. But being stuck on a train for two hours was no picnic for the passengers, I'm sure...
The only bright spot in this whole ordeal was that commuter control was able to call a crew for train 71, which would've been run later that evening by 63's crew. Even though they were over two hours late into Elburn, they were actually able to tie up and go home two hours early, since 511 was right behind them, and would resume their normal schedule as 512. But being stuck on a train for two hours was no picnic for the passengers, I'm sure...
--Dorian--
