by lstone19
I'm surprised there's been no posts about last night's issues. Much of it was weather related but the Milw District/NCS PM commute was messed up even before that. Apparently an interlocking problem at A-3 (east end of Western Ave. yard) made a mess of things. I was on 2239. At CUS, lots of people waiting for late equipment. Then coming out Track 3. Approaching A-2, there were two trains tail to nose waiting on Track 1 to get across. Trip out was slow - it appears we were riding yellows most of the way. Getting off at Roselle 17 minutes late, I could see Approach at Roselle West and to the east, the headlight of 2241 wating for us to get out of the way.
Then the weather hit. Alerts that had an eastbound stopped at Medinah and a westbound at Itasca due to "track obstruction" implied a tree down in between. Meanwhile, media reports had a northbound UP-NW train stopped for five hours due to power lines down across the tracks before it returned to Chicago (why it couldn't return sooner was not clear).
This morning, we were warned of delays due to continuing problems at Western Ave. (I assume last night's problem continuing). We went right through with no delay but we were on Track 3 so if the problem was A-3 and not A-2, it wouldn't have affected us (A-3 is only an interlocking for Tracks 1 and 2; on the other hand, I was on 2220 which normally runs Track 2 all the way so crossing from 2 to 3 on the west leg at A-5 was unusual and perhaps was due to the problem).
Then the weather hit. Alerts that had an eastbound stopped at Medinah and a westbound at Itasca due to "track obstruction" implied a tree down in between. Meanwhile, media reports had a northbound UP-NW train stopped for five hours due to power lines down across the tracks before it returned to Chicago (why it couldn't return sooner was not clear).
This morning, we were warned of delays due to continuing problems at Western Ave. (I assume last night's problem continuing). We went right through with no delay but we were on Track 3 so if the problem was A-3 and not A-2, it wouldn't have affected us (A-3 is only an interlocking for Tracks 1 and 2; on the other hand, I was on 2220 which normally runs Track 2 all the way so crossing from 2 to 3 on the west leg at A-5 was unusual and perhaps was due to the problem).
Larry
Reno, NV (yes, I've moved)
ex-N&W Sandusky, Ohio
Reno, NV (yes, I've moved)
ex-N&W Sandusky, Ohio