Getting The Runaround
Nobody likes getting the runaround, but train crews particularly dislike the runaround because of how it delays them. The runaround delays their train in two ways: waiting for the other train to overtake them and then dealing with unfavorable signal indications because they’re now following a train.
This past January 11, 2013, the Glidden sub DS told UP 5074, an ILBEW (intermodal Long Beach-Englewood) train, that he had good news and bad news for them. The Houston terminal was ready to take them in, but he had to get one train around them at Harlem. Fortunately for the ILBEW’s crew, the train that would run around them was Amtrak #2, the eastbound Sunset Limited.
The ILBEW is at CP SA029, the east end of Harlem, as AMTK 14 overtakes it. The signals facing me will stay dark until #2 knocks down the signal at CP SA029.
Forty-five seconds later, #2 passes by me at track speed.
Right after Amtrak got by me, the ILBEW got its signal and begun dragging out of the Harlem siding en route to its rendezvous with the Englewood ramp.
Two SD90MAC’s sporting their new 3500 series numbers made up the balance of the ILBEW’s power.
All in all, the ILBEW’s crew had to be pretty happy with this particular runaround. They only had to wait 10 minutes for the overtake and as fast as #2 was running, they weren’t going to be running on its blocks very long.
Southwest Rails 
It’s pretty rare that UP signals Amtrak ahead of an Intermodal, guess the dispatcher realized that getting Amtrak into the terminal OT, may result in a few extra dollars for OT performance at the end point… The picture may have been different if the Intermodal was running close to hours of service..
Back in the SP days, Amtrak would have just followed the SP train catching it’s yellow blocks.