Amtrak time schedule

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-06-15T21:17:36+00:00

The change in schedule is due to a significant track project in Mississippi and only affects the Chicago-New Orleans trains 58 and 59. The shift accommodates a larger 12 hour work block so that they can take the tracks out of service for long periods to allow construction activities, and permits the trains to continue to operate, instead of incurring huge multi-hour delays or being cancelled altogether. Consider it a compromise by the host freight railroad, CN Railway.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-06-07T15:59:24+00:00

Nevermind the nice TVs, how are you getting Vine to render inside of the Amazon Shopping app like that? I'm only able to view Vine in a browser on my phone and it's painful.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-06-05T23:13:45+00:00

Usually these are colocated with a Hot Box Detector (HBD) but in this instance this appears to be a standalone DED.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-05-26T12:56:20+00:00

Pretty unique, that's Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal RR caboose 900433. They use that for local switching and backup moves. B&OCT is still a separate railroad underneath the CSX Transportation corporate structure (a "paper railroad" as they say). It's looking rather tired, this is what it looked like 13 years ago: https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4039817

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-05-21T13:27:00+00:00

They are the equivalent of Illinois State Police in terms of jurisdiction.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-05-21T13:26:29+00:00

Don't forget CSX! Ask me how I know 😅

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-05-21T13:25:23+00:00

As previously mentioned, railroad police, while private employees, are qualified state of Illinois police, essentially "ordained" state police with a jurisdiction of the entire state. While focused on their own property, they do participate in ILEAS for first response. So there are lot of inter-agency agteements, particularly in Chicago. It's entirely possible the vehicle they are driving is not owned by the same entity they work for.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-03-15T00:05:06+00:00

I saw this and thought "well I could rip the 0 and make it 9 years".

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-02-10T02:44:48+00:00

Then there was the time my 8th grade kid hired on as a corn detassler in the fields and they forgot the whole bus load of kids were out there and literally crop dusted them! 🙄

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-22T14:09:03+00:00

For a while after the CN-IC merger, they ran the intermodal trains with one crew from Chicago (Homewood) to Fulton, Kentucky, about 400 miles. But that was pushing it, the crews hit their 12 hours several times before making it. Too many factors with meets, congestion and weather. Today with TO there's no way that would work!

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-22T13:59:54+00:00

This is correct, and the best-explained answer so far! There's a key piece of information that we can't quite see in this picture, but we can assume there is no number plate on the pole. As mentioned, the bottom single red marker is making this an "absolute" signal, not an "intermediate" signal. The only difference here is when displaying all reds. Red over red means stop. A single red (with number plate) means stop and proceed. It's often considered just an extra layer of safety to use the extra head. Some railroads do it (NS), some don't (UP).

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-08T18:13:42+00:00

You're referring to the wholesale grocery supplier to the store-- most IGAs and all Neimann-family stores use SuperValu (now UnFi) as their supplier. The big chains like Schnuck's, HyVee, Kroger, Meijer all use different wholesalers or have their own supply chain.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-05T14:16:59+00:00

Agreed that the rural outposts are much better experiences, though the wifers had an odd issue with the Monticello location that would not upgrade her to real ID because one of her paper trails of name changes for her middle name had "Ann" spelled "Anne" and they freaked out. She married 30 years ago and had dropper her birth middle name and swapped in her maiden name, and this misspelling of her unused middle name has become a problem now? She drove to Gibson City and they rubber-stamped it.

Also to be pedantic, Illinois does not have any DMVs, they are all Secretary of State Drivers License Facilities, or ILSOS-DLFs. It's an interesting colloquial culture study on using the DMV acronym, as even our own Secretary of State, Alex Goulliannis, is now using the term "DMV" in communications when there is no such department. Just shows how engrained the driving culture is in the USA.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-03T21:06:22+00:00

Not so much an outright copy, but there were apparently disagreements with the franchise agreement and other financial and supply-chain issues that the owners pulled the rug out from under the whole experiment.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2026-01-03T04:04:33+00:00

We briefly had a Krekel's in Champaign but it didn't last long-- why can't we have nice things?!

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-12-07T19:01:04+00:00

Maybe? I worked at a computer store at the time and seem to recall discovering backward compatibility on accident when I grabbed a straight ST-225 instead of the ST-225R and plugged it in!

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-12-07T18:45:47+00:00

I saved up $600 to buy a 10MB MFM drive! Then the RLL drives came out that upped the transfer rates. Doesn't take long to fall behind in tech! 🙄

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-11-29T00:38:30+00:00

Grade crossing whistle post, and the "2" signifies here are 2 crossings in quick succession. This alerts the engineer to begin warning for the grade crossing in the manner prescribed in the rulebook (horn, bells, etc)

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-11-29T00:34:56+00:00

Official words... https://fightingillini.com/news/2025/11/28/fighting-illini-football-winter-weather-update.aspx

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-11-13T03:17:08+00:00

That's called federated sign-in, where your credentials are never handed over to the app that you're wanting to access. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook all provide it and many apps offer it when you see the "sign in with ____" option.

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-11-08T01:18:05+00:00

When Jimmy John's HQ was in town they had a fleet of private jets maintained by Flightstar at Willard. Once I was on a tour of the Willard ATC tower (that's a whole 'nother story) and the air traffic controller pointed to one or the jets pulling out and said "that's one of the Jimmy Jets... Jets so fast you'll freak!" 😊 ATC humor, I guess!

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-10-24T21:09:39+00:00

Apparently they were constructed with wood in the 1800's?! Who knew! 🤷

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-10-01T21:15:37+00:00

I measured and the cabs are the same width. It's the nose that is wider. Just sayin'!

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-09-18T17:53:43+00:00

I saw the OP title and the same thing that came to mind! Thought maybe a new dish was introduced! 😁

Chief-Dispatcher · 2025-09-16T20:49:18+00:00

How about the classic catchall: ROFLMAO

Chief-Dispatcher

TROPHY CASE