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355 this evening lost 45 minutes between Dearborn and Ann Arbor. A lot of trains seem to lose at least a little time in this stretch. Are they all getting dinged by CSXT holding the Diamond at Wayne? Or is there trackwork going on, or is it something else?

354 sitting at Gord waiting for CN.

EB NS B25 with NS 3277/NS 6169 departed Jackson for Wayne with 22 cars at 08:00

350 stopped at Avery on CN Shoreline Sub waiting for a track authority to clear between Avery and Beaubien, and for the NS 121 to clear Beaubien.

LansingRailFan wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 29, 2023 9:28 am

EB NS B25 with NS 3277/NS 6169 departed Jackson for Wayne with 22 cars at 08:00

WB NS B25 with NS 6169/NS 3277 departing Wayne at 14:50

Is 350 operating this summer? Haven't seen it for a couple days now (though I did see 355 yesterday) and the Amtrak Train Status says that it is not operating on the day I ask.

Manistique wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 3:32 pm

Is 350 operating this summer? Haven't seen it for a couple days now (though I did see 355 yesterday) and the Amtrak Train Status says that it is not operating on the day I ask.

Looks like 350/353 are weekend-only for a while: https://www.amtrak.com/alert/wolverine- ... ended.html

Sounds like Amtrak 351 is dead in the water at Troy as of 7:41 AM.

David Collins wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 05, 2023 7:41 am

Sounds like Amtrak 351 is dead in the water at Troy as of 7:41 AM.

He just went past MP 22.5 in reverse very slowly heading back to Pontiac station. I wonder if they will combine it with 353, which he is delaying departure of as it should be going by here about right about now.

Manistique wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 05, 2023 8:51 am

He just went past MP 22.5 in reverse very slowly heading back to Pontiac station. I wonder if they will combine it with 353, which he is delaying departure of as it should be going by here about right about now.

Probably is the case. Must’ve been a pretty serious problem if it warranted a return back to Pontiac. No word as to what it was yet.

353 finally went past MP 22.5 on the Holly at 11:15 am. Wasn't able to look to see if they combined the it with the disabled 351.

Manistique wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 05, 2023 11:16 am

353 finally went past MP 22.5 on the Holly at 11:15 am. Wasn't able to look to see if they combined the it with the disabled 351.

It appears via the Amtrak tracker that the two are indeed combined.

WB NS B2T departing Wayne for Jackson. Will hold for Amtrak 350 at CP twenty eight

351 had sticking brakes on a coach. The big unanswered question is why the train reversed to Pontiac
and combined with 353.
Andy

There are two Venture coaches sitting on the passenger depot track in Pontiac as of 5 pm from 351 this morning. It looked like a crew was working on one of them. The spare locomotive was on 355 along with the one that it arrived with (push/pull) that is getting ready to depart in Pontiac in a few minutes. As to why they backed back to Pontiac, maybe because there are Amtrak employees stationed there who can work on it? The next spot would have been Moterm Yard to leave them if they continued south instead of backing up.

Can someone just blow up and redesign the ventures already? Those things have some problems.

I too am curious about how they combined 351/353 together…did they also combine the engines?

Both engines were up front, IDTX 4617 & 4623.

The Venture coach fiasco reminds me of VIA Rail's first new coaches, the LRC's that also came with their own locomotives. Made by Bombardier, which just bought the old Alco affiliate, Montreal Locomotive Works, and this was their first sale, I think. It was around 1983 or so when they started arriving. They often came into Windsor where I saw them and rode in them a number of times to Toronto, the last time being about ten years ago.

They had trouble from the get-go, the biggest being that they wouldn't "tilt" for high speed service on curves, their main selling feature (they never fixed that either). Though the LRC locomotives didn't last long, they got the LRC coaches bugs out eventually and some may still be running on VIA Rail. Matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that the new Venture coaches VIA is receiving is replacing them now. So time usually works out train bugs.

350 and 355 had a locomotive on each end today again. Wondering if the two broken Venture coaches are still hogging the depot siding in Pontiac where they keep the spare locomotive or if this is just they way they are going to run them on their weekend summer schedule. I guess there is less need for a spare at Pontiac this way.