North Carolina NCDOT-Amtrak Carolinian Service

Site Admin Note: Combining a few threads into a Carolinian Thread

Amtrak rarely uses Horizon equipment for its east coast services, but for some reason the Carolinian typically has a Horizon dinette in the otherwise all-Amfleet consist. Is there any particular reason for that? AFAIK, the Amfleet and Horizon dinettes are roughly comparable.

probabally that is all they have...

Well the Keystones and Clockers are running with all kinds of Amfleet Cafes these days, even though these trains don't offer cafe service, so not sure why the Carolinian gets a Horizon dinette. The Amfleet Cafe I sat in the other day on the Clocker was much nicer - used to be in the Metroliner trainsets.

Juniata Terminal Private Varnish Juniata Rapids, Warrior Ridge, and Pennsylvania 120 brought up the rear of train #79, The Carolinian, on Saturday Dec 4, photographed at Frankford Junction, Philadelphia.

HHP-8 #657 had the honor of pulling the train.

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/Bobs ... 4_12_04_12

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/Bobs ... 4_12_04_13

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/Bobs ... 4_12_04_14

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/Bobs ... 4_12_04_15

Seems like eyewitnesses saw the truck driving around the arms, which were apparently functional. Accidents like this could be prevented so easily, if only people would give the proper respect to grade crossings. Tragic.

The speed limit on that section of track, the North Carolina Railroad between Raleigh and Selma, is 59mph, although it's fairly soon after leaving Raleigh so the train may not have been up to speed yet.

I wonder what they're going to do with today's southbound Silver Star and Carolinian. The derailment looks like it tore things up quite a bit so it'll take a while to clean up. They could potentially be rerouted on the Norfolk Southern line from Wilson to Raleigh, with passengers to/from Selma being bussed to Raleigh or Wilson. That would be cool, but I don't know how often those sorts of reroutings actually happen. More likely, passengers bound for points south of Selma on the Carolinan will be bustituted, and the Silver Star will stick to the A-line with bustitute service to Raleigh, Southern Pines, Hamlet, Camden, Columbia, and Denmark.

http://www.nbc17.com/news/4799639/detail.html

Well, it would seem that the SB Silver Star is sticking to the A line. That leaves the Carolinian. I hope those passengers like riding the bus.

MODERATOR'S NOTE

I'm sorry to learn there were fatalities, however we should note they were not Amtrak passengers or employees.

The highway vehicle involved can be replaced, locomotives and railcars can be patched up and returned to service. Further; I realize that "Einstein Awards' are passed out every day, but I see no need to discuss such here.

GBN.

Looking at the pictures. The upright passenger cars are visible directly next to the dump truck. Seems to me this train was going slow and no where near the posted speed limit. Comments?

I think it is a safe assumption that this story has been "pre-empted' by "The Miracle at YYZ".

When you fly, I don't know what better lesson has been afforded than to "listen up' to the Flight Attendants. Secondly, someone may choose to take my advice and always wear laced shoes while flying. I know contrary advice is given since the TSA mandated inspection of passenger footwear, but with a survivable incident such as today, you can run much faster through a debris field with footwear than without.

In aviation, and rail and other things for that matter, those 'one in a million years' things really do happen. I've also read reports that the crew of the plane was 'on the ball' and got everyone out smoothly.

It didn't look too good when the initial reports came in.

YYZ?, man i remember that Canadian airports have odd code letters but that one really pushs it.

YYZ=Toronto. To bring this back to the topic of thus forum, Amtrak's code for Toronto is, curiously, TWO. Anyone have any clue where the "W" comes from?

I saw this reported on abcnews.com as "Amtrak Train Derails Killing Two". The implication is that the two people that died were on the train and died as a result of the derailment, which couldn't be further from the truth. Why does the news media feel the need to bash Amtrak in this way? The story should people that people should be on trains instead of in front of them in their cars.

Just read this in the Boston Metro, yucko...what a mess that truck was. Poeple are so stupid, a slow truck trying to cheat around the gates. Now the injured passengers will most likely sue amtrak, bums.
There is a heated topic on the north shore from Boston about commuter trains to stop blowing whistles saying the gate does the job, not from cheaters like this truck. The horn will make you back up real quick, you hope.