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Re: The WORST trip you've ever taken
Author: Speeder Kevin
Date: 02-07-2011 - 19:07
Not worst, but probably the most unusual.
Back in the very early 1990's I was traveling south on Amtrak's Coast starlight between Portland Oregon and Simi Valley California. Along the way I mainly stayed at the back of the train looking out the Superliner's upper level rear vestibule window. With my trusty new Pro-32 scanner I listened to the train crews, dispatchers, and detectors as we passed over them giving the 'no defects' message. After Klamath Falls it had been dark for a few hours and I decided to get some sleep back in my seat.
Early the next morning I woke up while the train was at Sacramento and went back to the end of the train again to continue my track watching. When we arrived in Oakland Amtrak needed to haul a non-revenue (ex-Santa Fe) Hi-Level transition car to Los Angles. For those not familiar with them, they have half coach seats near the upper vestibule and 9 single roomettes down a center walkway from the center of the car to the lower vestibule end. With this car attached to the end of the train I was unable to see out the end of the train for the rest of the trip south to LA.
After the car was attached to the end of the train and departed Oakland, I stood at the vestibule I had been at since Portland and waited for a conductor to show up and go back there. When he did I politely asked him if it would be OK to go to the back of the train and continue watching out the back. To my surprise he said sure, go ahead. I then walked back with him through the last car, opening the privacy door into the bed bunk portion, down the center isle stairs to the door of the vestibule and we both looked out the back of the train at the tracks speeding by. I him know that all I wanted to do was look out the window, not go anywhere else in the car for the rest of the trip. He said that would be fine and informed me that he would be up in the coach section of the car doing paperwork.
Happy that I was able to be back there all by myself I continued to see the tracks, other trains passing, waving at train crews as they waved at me as we passed them, all was fine until about 19 miles south of Oakland.
Making good time on tangent track we were cruising southbound through the city of Hayward. Watching the mileposts fly by I looked at my SP timetable to check when the next detector was coming up. "Milepost 23.6" said the book, and we were at MP 20 or so. I waited to see the hotbox equipment fly from under us and wait for the radio broadcast from the detector. All of a sudden I hear two unusual noises, a ker-clunk like we ran over something at the far end of the car and then a loud noise of the air line applying the emergency brakes. I lost my balance but quickly regain it as we are slowing down at a pretty fast rate. A few seconds later I then hear the detector begin to broadcast an emergency message "Stop your train, Stop your train, dragging equipment near axle 56". At the same time I am looking out the back window and see the detector pass under me and disappear in the distance. The detector repeats the final message, "S.P. detector, milepost 2-3 point 6, dragging equipment near axle 56 (repeats one more time), detector out". (ref. 37°36'53.75"N 122° 5'42.76"W)
At this time I am standing looking out the back window at two fields either side of the tracks with no roads, houses, or buildings around, and a red signal behind the train and an eerie quiet. No fans, no air conditioning, just dead silence. I remember thinking 'how did the engineer know to apply the brakes before the detector told him to stop?' It didn't make any sense.
I listened to the radio and I remember the crew saying "We dropped the last car". My eyes got real big and I turned around, ran up the stairs, down the isle to the privacy door, opened it and looked about 20 feet down the coach section to see through the other vestibule door window the rest of the train about a quarter-mile down the track! The last car had uncoupled from the rest of the train.
I heard the conductor talking to the engineer over the radio about what had happened. I then looked outside the lone car and saw the conductor standing on the ballast looking at the train far down the tracks. I walked down to the lower floor and went to open door and smiled and looked at him and said "Betcha this doesn't happen all the time". He said actually it does on freight trains, but rarely on passenger trains. Holding onto a grab iron on the side of the car I leaned out and took a look at the rest of the train. He then told me to go back up in the car and have a seat and wait for him to come back inside.
After the train regained the air line to release the brakes, the rest of the train slowly backed up approaching the stranded car. The crew did the normal coupling and after the air was applied to the car and brakes set again the conductor opened the door to the next car where I walked back to the original last car where I had been talking to the occupants of the seats near there the day before. They had all asked me what happened. Laughing a lot, I informed them what happened. While I don't think they understood the technical aspects of the train movements and radio chatter, they did know I was back there when the car became uncoupled from the train.
The train sat there for nearly 90 minutes while the mechanical department was called out to inspect the cars to make sure they were road worthy. At this time I had the chance to talk to my mother about all that happened. While she wasn't worried for my safety she did mention to me that "Only after the train started to back up, only then I knew you were involved".
I never found out what the mechanical crew found wrong with the car, but I spoke with the conductor one last time and said "I guess I shouldn't ask if I can go back there again"? He smiled and said "I don't think so".
Back in the very early 1990's I was traveling south on Amtrak's Coast starlight between Portland Oregon and Simi Valley California. Along the way I mainly stayed at the back of the train looking out the Superliner's upper level rear vestibule window. With my trusty new Pro-32 scanner I listened to the train crews, dispatchers, and detectors as we passed over them giving the 'no defects' message. After Klamath Falls it had been dark for a few hours and I decided to get some sleep back in my seat.
Early the next morning I woke up while the train was at Sacramento and went back to the end of the train again to continue my track watching. When we arrived in Oakland Amtrak needed to haul a non-revenue (ex-Santa Fe) Hi-Level transition car to Los Angles. For those not familiar with them, they have half coach seats near the upper vestibule and 9 single roomettes down a center walkway from the center of the car to the lower vestibule end. With this car attached to the end of the train I was unable to see out the end of the train for the rest of the trip south to LA.
After the car was attached to the end of the train and departed Oakland, I stood at the vestibule I had been at since Portland and waited for a conductor to show up and go back there. When he did I politely asked him if it would be OK to go to the back of the train and continue watching out the back. To my surprise he said sure, go ahead. I then walked back with him through the last car, opening the privacy door into the bed bunk portion, down the center isle stairs to the door of the vestibule and we both looked out the back of the train at the tracks speeding by. I him know that all I wanted to do was look out the window, not go anywhere else in the car for the rest of the trip. He said that would be fine and informed me that he would be up in the coach section of the car doing paperwork.
Happy that I was able to be back there all by myself I continued to see the tracks, other trains passing, waving at train crews as they waved at me as we passed them, all was fine until about 19 miles south of Oakland.
Making good time on tangent track we were cruising southbound through the city of Hayward. Watching the mileposts fly by I looked at my SP timetable to check when the next detector was coming up. "Milepost 23.6" said the book, and we were at MP 20 or so. I waited to see the hotbox equipment fly from under us and wait for the radio broadcast from the detector. All of a sudden I hear two unusual noises, a ker-clunk like we ran over something at the far end of the car and then a loud noise of the air line applying the emergency brakes. I lost my balance but quickly regain it as we are slowing down at a pretty fast rate. A few seconds later I then hear the detector begin to broadcast an emergency message "Stop your train, Stop your train, dragging equipment near axle 56". At the same time I am looking out the back window and see the detector pass under me and disappear in the distance. The detector repeats the final message, "S.P. detector, milepost 2-3 point 6, dragging equipment near axle 56 (repeats one more time), detector out". (ref. 37°36'53.75"N 122° 5'42.76"W)
At this time I am standing looking out the back window at two fields either side of the tracks with no roads, houses, or buildings around, and a red signal behind the train and an eerie quiet. No fans, no air conditioning, just dead silence. I remember thinking 'how did the engineer know to apply the brakes before the detector told him to stop?' It didn't make any sense.
I listened to the radio and I remember the crew saying "We dropped the last car". My eyes got real big and I turned around, ran up the stairs, down the isle to the privacy door, opened it and looked about 20 feet down the coach section to see through the other vestibule door window the rest of the train about a quarter-mile down the track! The last car had uncoupled from the rest of the train.
I heard the conductor talking to the engineer over the radio about what had happened. I then looked outside the lone car and saw the conductor standing on the ballast looking at the train far down the tracks. I walked down to the lower floor and went to open door and smiled and looked at him and said "Betcha this doesn't happen all the time". He said actually it does on freight trains, but rarely on passenger trains. Holding onto a grab iron on the side of the car I leaned out and took a look at the rest of the train. He then told me to go back up in the car and have a seat and wait for him to come back inside.
After the train regained the air line to release the brakes, the rest of the train slowly backed up approaching the stranded car. The crew did the normal coupling and after the air was applied to the car and brakes set again the conductor opened the door to the next car where I walked back to the original last car where I had been talking to the occupants of the seats near there the day before. They had all asked me what happened. Laughing a lot, I informed them what happened. While I don't think they understood the technical aspects of the train movements and radio chatter, they did know I was back there when the car became uncoupled from the train.
The train sat there for nearly 90 minutes while the mechanical department was called out to inspect the cars to make sure they were road worthy. At this time I had the chance to talk to my mother about all that happened. While she wasn't worried for my safety she did mention to me that "Only after the train started to back up, only then I knew you were involved".
I never found out what the mechanical crew found wrong with the car, but I spoke with the conductor one last time and said "I guess I shouldn't ask if I can go back there again"? He smiled and said "I don't think so".
