Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited is on time and flying south through Castleton on Hudson New York about 8 miles south of A-R on the CSX Hudson Sub, the former New York Central. Track speed is 110mph and he is making every bit of it.
Excellent capture. This should be used as a training video for crossing safety, because it accurately demonstrates how you can't really judge how much time you have.
I don't think trains ever go near this fast anywhere Chicago. I never in my life saw one move like this. I watched the vid with your post in mind, and I'll admit, I would've been tempted to go around at one point, and the point at which I would have decided it was no longer possible to do it was, indeed, way too late to survive! And I think I'm very keen at judging large things in motion, and this surprised me for sure!! This one got to the crossing at a terrifying split-second!!
junkdeal They've done studies and for whatever reason, looking down that track is akin to the objects in this mirror are closer than they appear. They say you just can't really judge it, so that's why you never risk it. I honestly had the same reaction as you when I watched it, which is why I left the comment. I was familiar with the phenomena since I'm a railfan, but this video really drives it home. Thanks for the reply! :)
They got to 1 mile outside the station 25 minutes ahead of schedule, but had to wait 4 hours due to freight traffic. My Amtrak experience in a nutshell.
I went from Chicago to Pittsburgh on the Capital Limited, and got there 7 hours late because of 2 separate crew changes. They ran out of time inbetween stations and we had to stop and wait for relief crews. Ended up missing my connection to Philadelphia and had to be bussed to Harrisburg. I didn't pay to ride and be cramped on a bus and sit in highway traffic.
Federal RR Regs allow "at grade crossing" trains (rails at the same grade as the roadway) like this one, to go a maximum of 114 mph. Anything over 114 and the grades have to be separated so that the train either goes over or under the roadway. In this video, the engineer is booking it and pushing the max. Recently took the 9 PM Amtrak from Chicago to Springfield (185 miles). Trip time, station to station, including several stops and one +10 minute standby on a siding for a northbound freight to pass, was a little over 3 hours. Not bad, comfortable with legroom and really pretty smooth for about $35. Two beers and a sandwich for another $15. At Dwight, about 50 miles out of Chicago, the engineer steadily opened it up on a long section of newly rebuilt track. We were running parallel to the night traffic on adjacent Interstate 55. But, we were passing the southbound traffic, which I knew was moving at +75 mph, like it was standing still. When the conductor came by, I asked her how fast we were going. She radioed the engineer and turned back to me and said, "109."
@@amtrak706 spot on. Not sure what that guy is talking about. Up to 110MPH is allowed with standard gates. Over 110MPH and up to 125MPH you need some type of impenetrable barrier to stop a vehicle. But you do NOT need grade separation above 110MPH. Not a clue where he came up with “114 MPH”. That number is nowhere to be found in any Federal or other railroad regulations. RU-vid is full of people who love to comment on subjects they clearly know nothing about.
@@FFred-us9tw For sure, people love to leave nonsense comments. By the way, I am not sure when the quad gate/impenetrable barrier rule came in, but it had to be sometime after the 1980s because there were 125mph grade crossings with standard dual gates on the southern portion of the NEC until at least 1984 or so. That must have been an interesting sight.
If you can take the train at 100 mph and your trip is less than 500 miles, the train is faster than the plane (No waiting for boarding, no security checks, no weather delays.)
Right, however that's still not between the ears of the average American, especially Republican. But we already know that since the 80's overhere, where we even run trains at 300kmh. Up to 500km train is door-to-door(!) often faster then flying.
Outstanding video! I was riding northbound through Castleton one time and the engineer dumped it just as we hit the crossing. I talked with him after we stopped at A-R, and he said there was a kid hanging from the crossbuck who dropped out of sight just as we were going by him... the engineer was sure we had gotten the kid, but the conductor found no evidence when he walked the train, thank God. At 110, there's not much left after a collision. Dave
Thank you for posting a video with an Amtrak train going the speed you say it is! So many people post videos saying "150 MPH" or something similar, and the train is maybe going 100-110. Nice work!
To verify the legitimacy of this video I am one of those people who uses a GPS on transit systems to find top/average speeds and I clocked the Empire Service train at 112 mph around Albany (basically 110 mph track but minor variation is allowed)
The highest speed I have experienced as a passenger was 104 mph on train # 104, the last wb City of Los Angeles leaving Greenriver. 28 cars, 6 E units May 1st, 1971.
Head to the UK and ride any old mainline train. Some of them go up to 125 mph. Next, get blasted to Paris with the Eurostar at 180 MPH in 2 hours. Now that you're in France, try riding the famous TGV at 200 mph.
You're forgetting the Southwest Chief has traditionally held 90MPH speeds out west. The Lake Shore, while not cleared for 110, can go 90 in certain track sections. Not to mention the Chicago-St. Louis and Kalamazoo-Ann Arbor corridors are already running at 110. Plus, the Northeast Corridor services have been running at 125 since the wires went up and Acela regularly hits 150.
I've taken the Empire Service from Albany-Renssalaer to NYC and back a few times, and I can vouch that it does hit 110. The first time, I sat with the GPS on my phone and it had us clocked at 117mph at one point.
About 10 years ago. I rode this train from Chicago to NYC. 7 hours late. 1/2hr due to mail cars put on tail end of lake shore limited in Chicago and a coupler broke on a freight train in front of us. Our train sat at a station for about 21/2hrs at a station early morning. We hit NYC about 7 to 8pm.
You would think that with rail traffic moving at that speed that there would be bells. But bells are only used to warn pedestrians (not vehicle drivers), so apparently when the highway authority that's responsible for that street studied the crossing and determined what kinds of warning devices to install, apparently they didn't see any pedestrians. Dave
i love the sound of the horn as its aprroaching but im actually suprised that Amtrak would allow a train to go that speed through a small town like that
I talked to an engineer yesterday who works this line, he said there is a small stretch where the top speed is 110mph but because it takes so long for the p42's/p40's to power up that it's unlikey that they reach 110mph. The territory is to small for the trains to reach it's max speed of 110mph.
I was there in July of 2006, strange when I heard the P32 horns, they didn't sound anywhere near what that did. I REALLY WANT TO GO BACK THERE! BUT AWESOME JOB!
Yes the famous Castleton on Hudson railroad crossing that dot will not allow the village to incorporate access to the river on the other side, although in the UK every railroad crossing has separate sidewalk access across the tracks, they must feel that nobody in this area or in the state or country is proficient enough to cross
@ngtflyer Actually, upgraded lines are permitted to reach 110 mph. This was taken over a portion of the Empire Service line, which does reach the requirements as set by the FRA for 110 mph service.
Stay off the tracks when these guys are coming. Once heard of a guy who rode his snowmobile on a Canadian-Pacific track just north of Schenectady, NY. He encountered an Amtrak train going 70 mph. Sadly, it was the last time he'd ever do that. Enjoy watching the trains, but stay off the shiny tracks.
Please, you don't know what you're talking about. Having been through several Hurricanes in Florida and a couple on a ship while in the USN, there is only one thing comparable to a hurricane and that is a tornado. Certainly not an Amtrak train going by 5 yards away. LMFAO.
The one time I road the LSL they were doing alot of track work and it would barely do 30 over large stretches and it felt like the train was limited to 50mph tops for the whole dang trip
@MrJmprice Overspeed is adjusted for it's respective route. This is on a portion of line served by the Empire Service, upon which 110 mph service is carried out.
The video runs 55 seconds, which would represent the MAXIMUM amount of time you would suffer inconvenience! Spoiled, impatient, self-absorbed people of your ilk truly frustrate me! Do you recommend a proper time frame that suits YOU, but not the train and it's passengers? No solution, just complain? I understand. In fact, let's just eliminate these rail signals and adopt assumption of the risk. Cross at your peril! Libertarians represent an equal problem to a cohesive society as identity-obsessed social justice types. Perhaps you could learn to wait less than one minute and appreciate the engineering it represents. Your latte will await your arrival!
I just made the trip last week on the LSL from NYC to Chicago and we never broke 79mph for the portion that I was awake (don't know about speeds between Rochester and Toledo, though). Had a GPS on the whole time.
I ride Amtrak at least a dozen times a year &, it's is great! at 2:00 a.m we will go parallel to the interstate for 70 miles and the train is going a good clip faster than the headlight's on the freeway. 80-85 mph. Good time's.! ;)
Imagine if all of Amtrak's routes had dedicated lines for amtrak trains only? Not only would there be a possibility of having High Speed rail there, but regular amtrak trains can run at top speeds with little to no traffic.
