6 Hour Late Zephyr put In Siding as BNSF Freight Gets Priority (PENNSYLVANIA RR obs. on Rear!)
Channel: OmahaTom
Date: 2021-08-16

When Amtrak took over all passenger rail services from the privately owned freight railroads in 1971,  several key stipulations were made for any railroad interested in signing up for the Government-owned corporation known as The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, which was designed to relieve the burden that passenger operations, which had become invariably unprofitable,  were having on the freight railroads across the nation. One of those stipulations declared that, if you, as a "host" railroad, chose to participate in the Amtrak takeover of your railroad's Passenger operations, you must turn over all of your passenger equipment (locomotives, cars, maintenance equipment, etc...) to Amtrak, and you must give all Amtrak trains priority over freight traffic across your railroad, so as to ensure Amtrak's trains consistently adhere to a precise schedule that the general public can be confident in when making travel plans. This rule has become increasingly ignored by the major freight railroads in recent years, resulting in drastically absurd delays for many long distance Amtrak trains. BNSF is usually pretty good about maintaining Amtrak's priority on their network, but Union Pacific, I'm sad to say, often seems to intentionally delay Amtrak trains, and even seems to hold an adolescent stubborn resistance to intercity passenger trains operating on their lines. 


This day, Amtrak was already running 6 hours late because of UP's lack of respect for Amtrak, having put the eastbound Zephyr in the hole multiple times the day before as the train attempted in-vain to stay on schedule the previous day as it slowly traversed Nevada, Utah and Colorado on Union Pacific trackage, sometimes being held in a siding as 2 and even 3 freight trains were allowed to over-take it. So it was no help when BNSF showed the eastbound Zephyr the same treatment as it crossed the Great plains on BNSF tracks, on it's home-stretch on the final leg of it's 3 day San Francisco to Chicago journey.


There was a privately-owned historic Pennsylvania Railroad observation car on the rear of the train this day, as well, which was a nice surprise. 


Location: Plattsmouth, Nebraska, USA.   July 24, 2021    11:04 AM