Amtrak Southwest Chief Discussion

mtuandrew wrote:Speaking of Lamy, why is it still an Amtrak stop? The Santa Fe Southern has ceased operations as far as I know, Lamy itself is a ghost town, and there is daily service along the New Mexico Rail Runner just a bit further west. I do love the station, but it seems redundant when the Chief could just stop at Bernalillo (larger city, suburban to Albuquerque) or Kiwa Pueblo (closest to Santa Fe.) At least it could be a flag stop.

Lamy services Santa Fe, Bernalillo wouldn't. Using Kewa Pubelo instead wouldn't service Santa Fe better than Lamy, and the tribal leaders would probably be against Amtrak stopping there. So Lamy is where Amtrak continues to stop.

The Santa Fe Southern is "Mothballed" for now,there 's a van service that operates between the major Hotels in Santa Fe
and Lamy,back in the ATSF era,you had Bus service connecting at Lamy for Santa Fe bound passengers(under Fred Harvey services)
There was 1 train,a Mixed Train between Lamy and Santa Fe,in the public TT's,the rest were Bus connections.
There are certain Holidays during the Year that NMRX and Santa Fe Trails(local city bus service)do not operate

Lamy is a staffed station,with Checked Baggage service,Gun Locker,and Ticket Agent,NO Ticket Machine installed!!

mtuandrew wrote:Speaking of Lamy, why is it still an Amtrak stop? The Santa Fe Southern has ceased operations as far as I know, Lamy itself is a ghost town, and there is daily service along the New Mexico Rail Runner just a bit further west. I do love the station, but it seems redundant when the Chief could just stop at Bernalillo (larger city, suburban to Albuquerque) or Kiwa Pueblo (closest to Santa Fe.) At least it could be a flag stop.

Last time I was at Lamy, a weekday in July, there were many people awaiting both trains.
It seems a popular stop.

When the Santa Fe Southern was running,the tourist train/Mixed would lay over in Lamy,
the freight cars were switched off,#4 would arrive/depart 1st,then #3 would arrive/depart about 45 minutes later,
when both trains were running on time,then the tourist train /Mixed would Depart for Santa Fe 15 min later.
There was a "Museum/Dining Hall" under rehab back then along with a former SAL/Amtrak Diner "Mounted/Stuffed"
with the plan of being used as a "working" Diner.
An FRA inspection put a "Kink" in SFSR operations,due to some bridge issues that changed the track from Class 1
to excepted track,shutting down the tourist train,but allowing freight service to continue.

The Railrunner came along and reached Santa Fe in 2008,a year later(2009) the City of Santa Fe "ordered" SFSR to leave the
Santa Fe Depot,to allow the conversion to a "Visitors Center" run by the City. They found office space across the "plaza"
Part of track to Eldorado was brought up to Class 1 to allow a short run tourist train operation,but passenger counts fell fast,
forcing the 1st "Mothballing" after vandels drained coolant from the engine idling next to Depot on a side track.
X-Train brought in a couple of cars to run a "Dinner Service train with Bar" in 2014,short lived,due to bills not paid
by X-train,2nd "Mothballing" started in winter of 2014,reportly the cars brought in by X-train,
are held captive till the bills are paid off.

Boarded train 4 in LA this evening and the sleeper attendant gave out the WiFi password?! Five weeks ago Amtrak started a pilot on the Chief to provide Verizon MiFi service in the sleepers only.

Nice perk. I carry my own MIFI. There are dead spots on the route but plenty of places have good service.

Should work decently from Isleta to near Waldo off of NMRX's WiFi network,however there was warning from
NMRX,that the Wifi hardware supplier has gone belly up,there might be some glitches.

Pueblo seeks Southwest Chief stop as Amtrak line's future is secured -- Denver Post

"If Colorado is going to help save this line, we need to have a stop in Pueblo," said Sal Pace, a Pueblo County commissioner who leads the state's legislative effort to protect and expand the Chief.

Pace, chairman of the Southwest Chief Commission, is the leading voice in the push for a new stop and hopes it will serve as a precursor to an expansive Front Range rail system.

Pueblo dreams of train travel bringing a renaissance to its southern rail hub similar to the rejuvenation at Denver's Union Station.

...

A Colorado Department of Transportation study showed a Front Range rail system spanning from Fort Collins to Pueblo would cost between $500 million and $1 billion.

The idea would be to connect the line to the Southwest Chief's proposed stop in Pueblo and to add another stop for the Amtrak line in Walsenburg.

Anyone know the condition of the track that runs from La Junta to Pueblo and from Pueblo to Walsenburg to Trinidad?

Running the SWC between La Junta to Trinidad via Pueblo would double (or thereabouts) the track mileage between those points, adding maybe 1.5 hours running time. It would also negate the need for spending $ on the Raton sub between those points... right?

Balerion wrote:Anyone know the condition of the track that runs from La Junta to Pueblo and from Pueblo to Walsenburg to Trinidad?

Pueblo to Trinidad has heavy freight traffic (including, IIRC, a lot of Wyoming coal for Texas power plants). The track should be well maintained, although whether BNSF (with UP a tenant, I think) wants a passenger train added to the mix is open to question. Not sure about Pueblo-LaJunta.

Pueblo to Trinidad has heavy freight traffic

Where do those freight trains go from Trinidad? Over the pass? I thought the two daily passenger trains were the only users of that line except for an occasional freight.

Trinidad is the where the ex-ATSF passenger main (the line over Raton Pass) crosses the ex-CBQ (C&S/FW&D) Denver to Amarillo line (both now owned by BNSF). The freight traffic is on the ex-CBQ line, which comes south from Pueblo to Trinidad and, after twisting around the mountains, heads southeast to Amarillo.

I'd understood that Pueblo - La Junta - Amarillo was BNSF's preferred route for coal loads from Wyoming to Texas, since it has lower grades, and that the Amarillo - Trinidad - Pueblo route was mostly used for empties.

You are dealing with directional Coal unit trains and joint owner UP,at least the Pueblo Union station is still useable.
Believe the "Pueblo Detour" was removed from the TIGER grant process after last year's general election
changed the critter from that part of the state(Senator Udall of Co lost the election)
The ATSF served Pueblo with a train shared with DRGW between Lajunta-Denver,and connecting bus service
to/from Lajunta for the Chief and Super Chief back then.

What was not mentioned in that article was the possibilty of connecting service on the SLRG(IP)
to/from Alamosa Co at Walsenburg. The dream of a passenger train on the Joint Line was mentioned.

I had not realized they had adopted directional running between Amarillo and Pueblo, but I can see where it makes sense for BNSF. It does further complicate trying to put a passenger train from La Junta to Pueblo and on to Trinidad, though.

mtuandrew wrote:I'd understood that Pueblo - La Junta - Amarillo was BNSF's preferred route for coal loads from Wyoming to Texas, since it has lower grades, and that the Amarillo - Trinidad - Pueblo route was mostly used for empties.

That is correct. Empties run north from Amarillo to Trinidad Via Dalhart while loads go south via La Junta and Boise City. The Southwest Chief would be "swimming against the flow" with a loop to Pueblo.

There is some freight traffic on the Raton Subdivision between La Junta and Trinidad. Mostly it's coal empties that come from east of La Junta. At Trinidad they pull west under the Dalhart to Pueblo line by the connecting switch and back through the connection to a yard just north of Trinidad. Since coal trains have power at both ends it's just a matter of changing the headend/DP controls and going north. The H-KCKDEN also takes this route but the power must be run around the train at Trinidad.