cbs13.com - Amtrak Train Bound For San Diego, California, Runs Out Of Fuel Uhh,I'm guessing that big metal tank under the locomotive ran empty... They actually spend time looking "into it"? Have to have an official investigation for everything these days,I guess.
huh, they must either ahve a leak or have hoped they could make it and been wrong. Being stranded in Soledad canyon wouldn't be fun. So close to everything, yet so far. I noticed the last couple of times I've taken the train that there's a fuel truck waiting at San Diego to top off the Amtrak and the Coaster engines.
Obviously an error somewhere. People will make it a black eye for AMTRAK but how often do motorists run out of gas? I'll bet there aren't more than 10 people who've read this article who've never run out of gas! Now I take it this was train powered by a single locomotive. And the fuel gauges weren't working...? Not very good. Somebody at the fueling station or whomever does last minute checks dropped the ball. And as one person said, it could simply have run out of fuel due to a leak. It can happen... Time to move on.
It would have been a single F59PHI in pull mode. Assuming that it wasn't the Amfleet set that's been floating around lately...which seems unlikely as that has two units.
Likely quite true. However, there will probably be at least an individual person who is rather embarrassed. Boxcab E50
Yep stuff sure does happen alright; but there will be one somebody embarrassed over that incident.:tb-biggrin:
Amtrak Never Learns! HooBoy, Amtrak never seems to learn....! About 5-6 years ago, when the Sunset (#1) was still running between Orlando and New Orleans, Amtrak replaced its two F40s with one Genesis. This meant that Amtrak could discontinue the re-fueling stop at Pensacola, FL because the F40's "tiny" fuel tank had been replaced by the Genesis' "huge" fuel tank. Well, this particularly hot sunny day in mid-July 2004, the Amtrak engine terminal in Orlando, FL had no Genesis available, so it assigned one beleagured F40 to the westbound Sunset. Guess what, that poor F40 did NOT get re-fueled at Pensacola, so it ran out of fuel behind my house in Gulfport, MS. Remember that this was mid-july in south Mississippi, Super Fleet windows do NOT open to admit fresh air, and the Conductor was instructed to NOT let passengers disembark onto the roadbed in the middle of the "Boonies", so these poor folks sweltered for more than five hours until an SD40, released by CSX, delivered the train to New Orleans. Aside from the stupidity, I take exception to my back yard neighborhood being called the "Boonies"...:tb-hissyfit:
You could have rolled out the red carpet, bribed the conductor, set up a lemon aid stand and entertained all those poor folks. Don't you keep a few thousand gallons of gas, oops I mean diesel fuel, around for your lawn mower?
I used to know a guy that fueled the Amtrak train every night in Kansas and he was a dim bulb of the highest (or lowest) order. He could have easily been the fourth stooge. So, it's not hard to believe actually. Charlie
It happens. Once in awhile, 1 will slip thru. At NJT,we have a rule to check the fuel gauge,when possible,as part of your pre-trip. If they get to a out lying terminal,they'll send another engine up.
Well, back in '55 we had about that much to fuel a pair of Farmall MDs. 'Course the B&M didn't need any 'cause they planned ahead...doncha know. :tb-biggrin:
I remember one time there was a NS westbound train that ran out of gas and they were just only 30 miles away from Danville, KY. They thought that they had enough to get to Louisville; well they were wrong. So they had to truck the fuel truck all the way over to reach them to top off. Talk about an embarrassment not only for the crew but for NS.
Well its only a train. A couple of years back when Canada was converting to metric someone filled up a Boeing with litres rather than gallons. Wouldn't you know it they ran out of jet fuel half way to thier destination. The captain who dead sticked the "Gimli Glider" was considered a hero, except for the fact that he shoud've checked the guage during the pre-flight.
Ya know, the ones I really feel sorry for when a lokey goes dry are those poor diesel mechanics who must bleed the high pressure and fuel pump every injector line before that baby can be re-started. That's one helluva messy job with an engine of that size.....YUK!
I got the link to the article from a comedy/news website called Fark.com FARK.com: (3827187) Amtrak train runs out of gas, sits idle for two hours while waiting for assistance. AAA and Geico surrender Whenever there's an Amtrak thread there's usually people making comments about their experiences with riding Amtrak. Some of the comments can be pretty funny,though:
Now, I know it has fuel-sight glasses on the tanks,(on both sides even), but they don't put one in the cab, with all the other electrical gauges and computer stuff?
I think that this is quite funny, but at least it was not during the day and hot. But things could have been worse. I was on a San Diegan that broke down and that was not a good day as it happened to be a very hot day that day but that was yrs ago.
Remember that passenger locomotives with HEP are a different animal than a freight locomotive. They are running in high RPM - high demand mode - most of the time. So their fuel consumption standing still is almost as bad as moving - not like a freight locomotive idling. If they were scheduled a fuel stop in SD, and got delayed; may have thought they had 'just enough', and then got delayed, it can happen. I've also been surprised when I've looked at locomotive fuel consumption data and it varies a lot by unit, and also whether running primarily upgrade or down. Get all the wrong stars in alignment here, it can happen. I don't know about the F59's, but your typical diesel is dependent on the exterior tank fuel gauges. Nothing on the 'dashboard'. The terminal hostlers are responsible for fueling. If a gauge is defective or stuck...hey, that happened to me on I-90 a few years ago. Chugged to a halt, and suddenly realized I'd put over 500 miles on a tank of gas and it still said 1/4 of a tank? Hmmmm. Yup, defective gauge. I'll bet this happens more than you think, but you only know it happens for sure on a single-unit consist.
Agree with Randgust' statements. In addition to my engineers certification, I was also an examined and qualified Conductor,switchman and Hostler. As a hostler I filled a few locomotive tanks and DONT YOU DARE OVERFILL OR SPILL THAT FUEL ON THE GROUND! As a hostler you relied on the sight glasses for the correct fill and you dont want the sight glass to fill to the top! Allow about 1 1/2"or more.Most of the fuel gauges never gave an accurate reading, most especially on the beaters that were used as switch engines. As a hogger, you ALWAYS,ALWAYS,ALWAYS check the fuel tanks as part of your inspection,gauge and sight glass. As Randgust said, any loco running with HEP is gonna burn fuel at a higher rate. I was a commuter train engineer too. The only time we put those locos in low idle and isolated them was at CUS when the train went on "shore power" or at Hill yard when the trains tied up at night and went on "shore power". Any diesel loco running under heavy load is likely to blow off a lot of unburned fuel. I have seen my share of induction fires at the exhaust from expelled fuel. Saw a few fires when my wife & I rode #5 to Emeryville. That train is heavy and those locos really struggle to claim those mountains! You get a really good view from the upper level lounge car! Lotta flames shooting out! That foul-up on AMTRAK involved more than one person, you can bet on that! The posting about this incident triggering "war stories" about trips on AMTRAK can also be applied to any and all airlines. I can tell you an endless string of tales about airplanes and air trips from my 25+ years in the airline biz and also as a passenger. Charlie
