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The California Zephyr's 1-hour delay in Ottumwa, IA 4/11/14

584 views · Published 12 April 2014 · 2:38 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Bobby Harvey Video Productions · 2014 · Autos & Vehicles

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On April 11th, 2014, I drove to the Amtrak station in Ottumwa, Iowa, for what I hoped would be a quick shot of the westbound California Zephyr making its stop. Well...so much for that! The train was about 20 minutes late when it arrived, and then had to stay in the station while BNSF tried to find a place for it to continue west. Apparently there was track work in Chariton today, which reduced the mainline to one track, bunching up trains. In Ottumwa, BNSF had an eastbound freight tied down on the west side of town, which caused a huge domino effect on down the line. A loaded coal train was routed to go around stopped train, but had to wait for a westbound byproducts train to head into the Cargill spur to Eddyville. As soon as it was through Ottumwa, Amtrak arrived, and had to wait for the eastbound coal train to show up and go around the stopped train. By the time all this was sorted out, the Zephyr had sat in the Ottumwa station over an hour, and departed almost 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. In this video, I filmed the train as it sits in the station, with the crew and passengers milling about on the platform, while the eastbound coal train appears, crosses tracks, and then switches off the BNSF on to the CP. Once it clears, Amtrak finally gets its clear signal and departs Ottumwa at 8:17 PM. Since I'd pretty much run out of light at this point, I walked west a little ways to the Gateway Drive crossing to film the train pulling out.

Locomotives on train:
AMTK 170 (P42DC)
AMTK 45 (P42DC)

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