Weds Oct 19, 5:45 am: Train separation

The process to decouple the trains works as follows:
1. Manually disconnect the first engine and drive it off.
2. Manually disconnect power and water from two cars in the middle of the train.
3. Manually disconnect the mechanical coupling in the middle of the train.
4. Drive the new, shorter train off.

Except in our case, for some reason they needed to swap the two engines. So after steps 1 & 2, they had to manually disconnect the second engine and drive it off, back the first engine up and reconnect it to the first train car (baggage car). Then proceed with steps 3 & 4.

For most of the hour or so we were in the station, the back half of the train (my half) had no power connection which means no flushing toilets and no air flow. Good thing I was out on the platform and didn't care.Read more