Another reason why our crossings should return to manned gates...

Lights too dim to see

"An earlier Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report found the lights, which were tested in a laboratory, were too dim and had output well below the specification for lights of this type."

Too focused on profits maybe?

Possibly. Also possible that field conditions and/or installation were different than test lab conditions, and nobody noticed. A bright lamp unter indoor flourescent light may be difficult to see in bright sunlight, especially if the sun is behind the lamp as you look at ithem....

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Another reason why our crossings should return to manned gates...

Lights too dim to see

"An earlier Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report found the lights, which were tested in a laboratory, were too dim and had output well below the specification for lights of this type."

Too focused on profits maybe?

Strange because as stated in the report,the car driver behind did see the lights.

From RAIB report Report 17/2013 v2

This was confirmed by the driver of a car that was following the car involved in the collision, who stated that the brake lights were on. She stated that she had seen that the wig-wags were lit as soon as she turned off the main road, which is 600 metres from the crossing, and thought that the car in front was going to stop at the crossing.

So a 50/50 I would say.

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More suited to the trains thread as after reading the report cannot see anything remotely suggesting a transport safety issue.

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Another reason why our crossings should return to manned gates...

Lights too dim to see

"An earlier Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report found the lights, which were tested in a laboratory, were too dim and had output well below the specification for lights of this type."

Too focused on profits maybe?

Strange because as stated in the report,the car driver behind did see the lights.

From RAIB report Report 17/2013 v2

This was confirmed by the driver of a car that was following the car involved in the collision, who stated that the brake lights were on. She stated that she had seen that the wig-wags were lit as soon as she turned off the main road, which is 600 metres from the crossing, and thought that the car in front was going to stop at the crossing.

So a 50/50 I would say.

It can also depend on how clean the windshield is, and how short / tall the driver is. There is one place on the local interstates where there is always a slowdown at sunrise because people cannot see through their windshields or cannot protect their eyes with the visor. At certain times of year, the sun rises straight over the road at rush hour.

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BOINC WIKI

Not a very good year over there...

Trains collide

...fortunately, no fatalities.

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We are starting to have more crude oil train crashes in the US.

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BOINC WIKI

We are starting to have more crude oil train crashes in the US.

Yes, it's getting rather disturbing, even for me.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

We are starting to have more crude oil train crashes in the US.

Yes, it's getting rather disturbing, even for me.

It all points to substandard rail and tie maintenance, which is related to not enough capital for shortline RR's to maintain their row, I've seen pics of some of these shortlines, they're as bad or worse than the Penn Centrals track was before Conrail came in and revamped what was savable and abandoning what wasn't, It was locos and trains moving at near walking pace, just to stay on the rails. Though I couldn't find any pics of a shortline railroad and wobbly track, I did find something Here, which is related to oil, trains and pipelines, BNSF is laying new track and buying tank cars.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Scratch that, I found several pics, all this track is decrepit... I found these pics Here.

And another...

Or this...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Vic, Those pictures tell a sad tale.I can not beleive that an engineer would even take a loco down that track. Thats a deadly accident waiteing to happen. And those other pics show what happens when you dont do track maintenace. Ive read that those old ties that were heavily soaked in creosote would last 100 years if they were kept on good drainage.

There has been quite the spike in tanker fires of late. Well you can use a pipeline. Ship it by rail. Or by truck. We all need the oil how the hell are we supposed to get?

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[/quote]

Old James

Vic, Those pictures tell a sad tale.I can not believe that an engineer would even take a loco down that track. Thats a deadly accident waiting to happen. And those other pics show what happens when you dont do track maintenance. Ive read that those old ties that were heavily soaked in creosote would last 100 years if they were kept on good drainage.

There has been quite the spike in tanker fires of late. Well you can use a pipeline. Ship it by rail. Or by truck. We all need the oil how the hell are we supposed to get?

Make sure the poorer railroads get some money to bring their track up to class 1 standards I guess, from what I've read these lines with such horrible track are breaking even since they don't have enough customers to fund track maintenance and some of these customers may not have any choice in shipping(damned if you do and damned if you don't), the richer ones like BNSF at least are able on their own to lay new track and buy 5000 tank cars. And yes, I agree, it is, some have gotten tiger grants to help fix their track, but not all are so lucky.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Its not only small railroad companies that have problem of maintaining track. The picture is of track that I took in 2010 at Clarkson station near Toronto, Canada. The station was being revamped and this track appeared to be newly relaid. The state of the sleepers beggars belief.

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.


A person who makes no mistakes, creates nothing.

Not a very good year over there...

Trains collide

...fortunately, no fatalities.

Seoul train crash blamed on system failure

The collision added to public anger and frustration with the country’s lax safety standards exposed by the ferry disaster.

The Chosun Ilbo daily, with the country’s largest circulation, said on Saturday that Seoul underground line No. 2 was built 34 years ago and was run down, and warned South Korea was not investing enough in maintaining its infrastructure.

“This country, however, has been parsimonious in investing in safety measures while rushing for ostensible economic achievement”, it said in an editorial.

Cheers.

Scratch that, I found several pics, all this track is decrepit... I found these pics Here.

And another...

Or this...

The middle of the three is unpassable by a train. The upper looks barely passable, and the bottom one looks like it has not had a train in years...

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BOINC WIKI

Well 2 out of 3 examples of poorly maintained row, probably cause of a lack of funds. Still if the derailments were caused by track like the top one and the RR had the funds, I'd want someone arrested for criminal negligence, which shouldn't be tolerated in this country...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

this is sad :(

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article4080544.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_05_04
Nineteen killed, 120 injured in India train derailment

At least 19 people were killed and more than 120 more were injured when a passenger train was derailed in India today.

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Scratch that, I found several pics, all this track is decrepit... I found these pics Here.

And another...

Or this...

The middle of the three is unpassable by a train. The upper looks barely passable, and the bottom one looks like it has not had a train in years...

Actually, I'd say the top one is the worst of the three. The middle one is at least level. On the third one, I'd think they would do some major brush clearing at the very least, plus a good inspection, before even trying to run a train on it.

The thing is, except for the big one in Quebec (which wasn't caused by a track problem), all of these oil train wrecks have been on class one railroads with enough money to do proper maintenance.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Scratch that, I found several pics, all this track is decrepit... I found these pics Here.

And another...

Or this...

The middle of the three is unpassable by a train. The upper looks barely passable, and the bottom one looks like it has not had a train in years...

Actually, I'd say the top one is the worst of the three. The middle one is at least level. On the third one, I'd think they would do some major brush clearing at the very least, plus a good inspection, before even trying to run a train on it.

The thing is, except for the big one in Quebec (which wasn't caused by a track problem), all of these oil train wrecks have been on class one railroads with enough money to do proper maintenance.

The middle one has a spot that is much too wide, and any rail car or locomitive that hits it will derail. The top one looks like it can be navigated if you take it slow enough. Agreed on the bottom one.

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BOINC WIKI

this is sad :(

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article4080544.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_05_04
Nineteen killed, 120 injured in India train derailment

At least 19 people were killed and more than 120 more were injured when a passenger train was derailed in India today.

That is terrible news Lynn :(

Given how scenes like this are common in India, it could have been potentially a lot worse I suppose :(

Bad rails aren't always old. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.