Older Folks and Vaping Back Porch - Part Seven
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Rediculous. But hey, gotta have something stupid to spend that tax $ on.A terrible derailment, people injured and killed...who knows how much money has been spent...a safety feature that had been installed, but not activated...and all of the measures taken would only have shortened the time for a trip between Seattle and Portland by a mere 10 minutes!
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Reports this AM are that it was going 80 in a 30 zone... uh, yeah, 2 1/2+ times the speed limit on a curve is bad news...
While it does seem wasteful to spend that kind of $$ to shave 15 minutes off, the new route also is to get all the passenger trains off the freight rails, so they don't have to pull onto a spur and wait for the "priority" passenger trains. So potentially a big economic boost from, well, keeping the freight up to speed. As is often the case in the sound bite media of today, the whole story is often not mentioned.
And the PCS - Positive Train Control - that could (would?) have slowed the train is not installed on the tracks, whether or not the state of the art train had that part as standard equipment.
While it does seem wasteful to spend that kind of $$ to shave 15 minutes off, the new route also is to get all the passenger trains off the freight rails, so they don't have to pull onto a spur and wait for the "priority" passenger trains. So potentially a big economic boost from, well, keeping the freight up to speed. As is often the case in the sound bite media of today, the whole story is often not mentioned.
And the PCS - Positive Train Control - that could (would?) have slowed the train is not installed on the tracks, whether or not the state of the art train had that part as standard equipment.
Hmm...What I've seen reported is that the PTC was installed on the tracks, but hadn't yet been on the train...
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That 30mph limit was mentioned in a document that was issued back in February, wasn't the upgrade only recently done on this section, and if so then it is quite possible that the speed limit was also upped,especially as it was for this newer type of stock, I'm sure they must have done some empty test runs over it before letting a laden passenger train through - OR NOT as the case may be - suppose we will have to wait for the NTSB report for the full details.
PS I used to work on the Railways over here in the UK as a Train Guard (think you call them conductors over there (looks after the passengers/checks tickets etc))
I just saw that speed report. Clearing rails to separate frieght from passengers is excellent from both an economic & safety stand point. Especially at the speeds & frequency these trains are going now. That was all very different when the rails were put in. Houston is supposed to be getting a new bullet rail between Houston & Dallas. It turns a 5-6 hour drive into a 90 minute train ride. We already have Metro rail into the Medical Center with accidents all the time.
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Well I wondered about that because the pics show the train coming out of one curve and starting into another. Even Talgo sets have to slow down for curves. I would say those 2 guys are facing some prison time. In the engineers defense which isn't much, I know when the RR opens new tracks many times the guys are not familiar with the territory, probably this guys first time over it, I know when I was working in SDak into Wyoming when they would open a new area that would maybe be 15 or 20 miles to a new coal mine, They would hand us a map and send us on our way. I am surprised that he didn't know the speed, should've been able to feel it after going thru the first curve and it looks like a double curve 1 righ and 1 left, I dozed off once and hit a 40mph turnout at 55 that knocked my coffee off the control stand, I woke up really fast. Used to be that Amtrak engineers were seasoned Freight engineers now Amtrak puts them thru training themselves but myself I would've been pretty nervous making a trip over territory that I was unfamiliar with. But its the RR way, when I moved to Spokane from Seattle the Road Forman gave me 2 RT in each direction to be familiar enough to take trains 175 miles. I had a book full of notes on each direction and that was my guide, but that was freight and no pressure to make certain times. The whole thing is a real disaster and there is no telling why he was going so fast. Myself I would've been so nervous running a passenger train over unfamiliar territory I'd of been crapping little purple birds. Never worked passenger and I'm glad. We'll have to see what comes out of it but I'm glad I'm not in their shoes. They get a 2 mile warning of speed restrictions.
PCS has not been put into effect anywhere that I know of in the NW yet but theres no excuse for this even without PCS. I will be interested in the experience level of the engineer and the other guy that was up there had and how familiar they were with the area and which one was actually operating the train.
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It may have been raised some but no way it was for maximum authorized speed for the rest of the territory, a double curve like that puts a lot of stress on everything, the equipment and the rails. It's possible that it was 79 coming into it and leaving it but someone missed the preceeding sign showing the speed 2 miles in advance, I'm surprised they both missed it.
That used to be a branch line and most of those when they were running 1 train a day each way was probably 25 and 10 through the curves. They just ran a local up there.
I also noticed the rail on the bridge had been upgraded and I forget the exact name for it but it's an extra rail on each side inside of the rail they run on, designed to keep the train on the road bed if it derails before the bridge but at that speed looks like the lead engine was the first to go and the train behind it accordians from the stress I can't imagine at that speed. I've never been over 60 on freight and even at that speed things are on you fast, 2 miles goes by pretty fast and at 80, like I say I can't imagine. There were extra employees on the train they said 6 or 7 normally there would be 3 the engineer is in the cab by himself and there is a conductor and asst. conductor in the train. Probably officials, just a guess but the other guy in the cab was probably a student engineer and you are supposed to let them run depending on experience. I'm not sure what Amtrak requires but for freight it only takes 6 months training to be an engineer, cost cutting measure before around 1976 or so you worked as a fireman and by the time you took one out by yourself you had been doing it for a couple years at least. I SDak when I went back there, they were hurting for engineers and I took my promotion exam one day drove back to good old Edgemont, SDak and was on my maiden voyage the next day. The other guy might have been a pilot which they are required to provide if the engineer is new on the territory, but who knows, I know it really p'd them off if you asked for one.
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I'm sure others have already heard this version, but this was my first time. I couldn't help but share it.
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