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A Possible Explanation
Sep. 19th, 2011 01:50 pmOne of my co-workers is a former employee of Southern Pacific Railroad (he shares the cost of my subscription to Trains magazine), and I told him about the mysterious broken California Zephyr. He came up with a potential explanation for why they would have shuffled the baggage car to the next-to-the-last place in the train.
( Train Brakes, Cabooses, and FREDs )
If our speculation is correct, it must have been very inconvenient for everyone, and I hope the train wasn't fully loaded, because probably at least one coach or sleeper (I didn't see what got shifted to the rear) had to be cleared out and the passengers moved. Or possibly they moved the transition/dorm car (which would have been easiest since it's coupled immediately behind the baggage car) and shafted the crew, at least until they could get to Winnemucca (where they might have been able to borrow a FRED from Union Pacific) or even Salt Lake City (the scheduled servicing stop).
Incidentally, the trainset that passed Fernley heading east on Saturday night is the one that arrives this evening in Chicago as train #6. It's currently expected to arrive a bit more than 3 1/2 hours late at 6:39 CDT, having lost even more time along the way.
( Train Brakes, Cabooses, and FREDs )
If our speculation is correct, it must have been very inconvenient for everyone, and I hope the train wasn't fully loaded, because probably at least one coach or sleeper (I didn't see what got shifted to the rear) had to be cleared out and the passengers moved. Or possibly they moved the transition/dorm car (which would have been easiest since it's coupled immediately behind the baggage car) and shafted the crew, at least until they could get to Winnemucca (where they might have been able to borrow a FRED from Union Pacific) or even Salt Lake City (the scheduled servicing stop).
Incidentally, the trainset that passed Fernley heading east on Saturday night is the one that arrives this evening in Chicago as train #6. It's currently expected to arrive a bit more than 3 1/2 hours late at 6:39 CDT, having lost even more time along the way.
