On 05-22-97 ALEC CAMERON wrote to DON DELLMANN... 
 
 AC>  DD> Today, on these very same tracks, Amtrak's "Empire Builder" is 
 AC> limited 
 AC>  DD> to 65 MPH.      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 AC> Very same tracks? Nah, don't think so. Tracks used to be maintained 
 AC> sufficiently. Some of the "improvenments" in train operation have made 
 AC> matters 
 AC> worse: 
 
 AC> * daily walk of track by fettler [gandy dancer??] is largely discarded 
 AC> so 
 AC> defects are undiscovered until a track recorder car does a run. 
 Well, all of your points are valid with the possible exception of this one.  
 However, it still depends on the class of railroad and whether there are 
passenger 
 trains running on the track. I forget the exact name for it, something like 
 Class 1 excepted track, with passenger speeds permisssible to 70mph (or so) 
 daily inspection of the tracks is manditory (at least it is on Conrail).  
 Granted, this is with a high rail truck but the inspector is the one who's 
 got his head in the noose if anything happens. And, it still can. The 
Lakeshore 
 Limited derailed near here 2 years ago,turned out to be a section of rail  
 where the ball of the rail had deformed slightly and a materials handling 
car 
 rode over the top, ran another 4 miles or so before the rest of the train  
 decided to follow it. Most fortunately no one was killed or seriously 
injured.  
 
 On the other side of track speeds and weights is the high usage of welded  
 rail. I believe I read that where its still jointed rail, passenger trains  
 are restricted to 45 mph? I might be off on the speed a bit.  
 
  AC> I guess there are a lot more can be added. Every unexplained 
 AC> derailment, puts 
 AC> the heat on the perway maintenance chief, to add new speed 
 AC> restrictions. 
I suppose. Look at how long it took to find the cause of the above 
derailment,  
over a year. Believe me, its a black mark on a maintainence chiefs record to  
have a drailment that's caused by bad trackwork.  
                                  K 
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