After almost 2 hours of traveling at speeds as fast as 5 miles per hour the fuel pump on the engine finally died and now I’m sitting in the middle of nowhere with a hundred other people waiting for them to replace the filter. Or possibly the engine. One thing’s for sure; if I were on a plane this whole thing would’ve been resolved a lot faster. One way or the other.
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When I saw the Thread title I assumed you must be on the DC Metro . . .
Well, look at it this way, if you were on a plane, the problem would be a lot more serious… and potentially a lot more dramatic. I’m not sure it would get resolved more quickly. Depends on equipment availability and all kinds of good stuff. I’ve waited 24 hours for a new plane.
I took a trip to CA recently where the engine needed to be replaced. We ended up 8 hours hours behind schedule. There are worse places to be stuck than a train. I hope it goes smoothly.
I never said it would be resolved in my favour. 
I haven’t figured how to do smilies with Tapatalk yet. It was the fuel filter & they were able to replace it so we only got back 2 hours later. It was a fall foliage excursion on a historic railroad, not a regular passenger train. They don’t usually do night runs so those WWI era train cars sure got dark. My parents ended up coming with me. Mom loved it, Dad not so much. Or at least that’s how I interpreted his comments about how it that it took 2 hours to go a town that was just over an hour’s drive away, and then it took 4.5 hours to get back. :smack: His cold probably didn’t help either.
Let me guess ---- outa Steamtown? I spent a week there one day getting a train ride. It sorta slipped off the rails. And when they built it all no one thought to put in one of those re-railers like every model train layout has. :smack:
Here I sit on a broken train;
Tried to shit, but only strained.
Yep, Steamtown to the Deleware Water Gap & back.
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Steamtown has that sort of (please forgive me) track record. Even with all the kin I still have in the region who get some benefit from the amount of pork Washington has shipped our way, that place should get some sort of award. And they may have changed the process since last time I tried it but the running further into town to purchase and return (once the choo-choo turns out not to be working) tickets was a pain in the arse. Next time skip the train and take the car to French Azilum — great leaves out that was, cool roads, and a neat little forgotten piece of history.
So here I sit on a broken train
Wish like hell I chose the plane
Perhaps I should not be so brash
With my luck the thing would crash!
Here I sit on a broken train
Paid to go yet I remain.
For 2 hours prior the train did heave
Would that we could make like a tree - and leave.
Ah heck — I wasn’t going to but
and since I am doing things I was resisting
cough
I’ve been riding on the railroad
All the live-long day.
I’ve been stuck on the railroad
Watching as time slips away.
Can’t you hear the intercom blaring,
Blaring so early in the morn;
Can’t you hear the captain shouting,
“Yes, folks, we’re still stuck!”
The other day, all the morning trains on my commuter line were cancelled after a train struck a pedestrian.
At least you weren’t that guy.
A few years back I was going from Chicago to Seattle on the Empire Builder and the train stopped just outside of Milwaukee. My impression was that there was a brake failure on the lead locomotive; whatever the cause, they had to dig up a freight locomotive and get it to the site, tow the disabled Amtrak locomotive to a siding, then come back and pull the train to St Paul where another Amtrak locomotive could take over. All in all, we spent about five hours stopped. Fortunately the second locomotive could provide head end power, otherwise we would have had no a/c, ventilation or (shudder) toilets.
Unfortunately the delay meant that even after we got moving again, the train was outside the window* where it had priority on the tracks, so we had to pull off and make way for a freight pretty often. Under the circumstances I think Amtrak did pretty well to get us into Seattle four hours late.
*Except in the Northeast corridor Amtrak runs on tracks owned by various freight railroads. The host is obliged by contract to give an Amtrak train priority during its scheduled time in a given section, but once it falls outside that window it’s fair game.
Thread title made me think about sitting on a Halifax pier. (Wish I was in Sherbrooke now.)