Amtrak data is {are, you know what I mean} stale right now.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The times and positions of trains have not been updated since 1:57 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Amtrak shows that 98, the northbound Silver Meteor, is at Winter Park, Florida, at 1:57 p.m., when the updating stopped. Instead, it just went through Ashland, Virginia, at 6:09 a.m.

[House of Roberts]

1. Yes, this sucks.

If the trains stay on schedule, I can simply refer back to previous days train logs to identify them. If some get way behind, then all bets are off as to which train went through.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I hit the time machine function to see if I had missed 98.

I went back to 3:30 a.m., and I didn't see him go by. I figured he was still on the way. My bet paid off. He was running about ten minutes ahead of 86. As always, there were lots of people waiting for 86, so 98's engineer got to violate the town ordinance against whistle use and let the people on the platform know that he was not the droid they were looking for.

And good morning.

[House of Roberts]

3. The trains got badly off schedule Tuesday, due to weather.

I had hoped things were back to normal yesterday, then the tracking maps went gerflunken and I had a supposed emergency with my housemate's car at the dentist. I had to go check out her car because she said people were honking at her like something was wrong, and her seat got really hot (it was overcast). It had plenty of oil and coolant, the belts were fine, it sounded fine and I followed her to see if it looked funny, and saw nothing unusual. By the time I got back there was no way to catch up to the Keystones, and I even went to bed early. Damn if we didn't have a spectacular thunderstorm this morning at 3 am to wake everybody up.

98 might be the worst train to follow without a tracking map. It is always one of the latest trains in the country! LOL!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. The California Zephyr and the Southwest Chief beg to differ.

98 might be the worst train to follow without a tracking map. It is always one of the latest trains in the country! LOL!

[House of Roberts]

5. I've watched the Zephyr traverse Arvada a couple of times.

The SW Chief can be seen at several stops on the VRF cams. I don't make trying to see them a regular thing though.

It is interesting when I notice LaPlata has over a thousand viewers and it turns out to be a special locomotive they all want to see.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Yes, yes, yes, the viewer count for La Plata never ceases to amaze me.

I'm over a thousand miles away, and when a big double-stack train goes flying by, I'm still scared.

[House of Roberts]

7. Amtrak tracker and Transitdocs are back up again.

What a relief!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. I can't get into Twitter anymore, so I can't scope out Amtrak's alerts.

Supposedly, they're on the website too, but I never see any.