The Train Thread 3

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Message 2116646 - Posted: 25 Mar 2023, 14:38:37 UTC - in response to Message 2116636.  
Last modified: 25 Mar 2023, 14:40:06 UTC

The whole UK rail system seems to have been affected by a spate of signal failures recently. Sometimes these are attributed to the theft of electrical wiring from the trackside, but more often it's just left as a generic report without further explanation.

The more often unreported bit is most likely 'happenings' from a complete lack of preventative maintenance.


A director of a certain American company I once did support work for gave a horrified exclamation that I was being paid for keeping things working. Why pay someone if things are working?... Hence, for a transition period, the support became "response only"... And they suffered their first outages and very greatly increased costs...

All in the stupidity of cooking the books, blindly one month at a time...
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Message 2116873 - Posted: 30 Mar 2023, 19:31:07 UTC

Yet another 1 comes off the rails.

Fiery train derailment in Minnesota prompts evacuations of homes.

A train hauling ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire in Minnesota early Thursday and nearby residents were ordered to evacuate their homes.

The BNSF train derailed in the town of Raymond, roughly 160 kilometres west of Minneapolis, about 1 am, according to a statement from Kandiyohi County Sheriff Eric Tollefson.

The train "had numerous rail cars derail" and several caught fire, Sheriff Tollefson said.

"There have been no injuries as a result of the crash or emergency response," the sheriff's department said in a Facebook post.

"BNSF specialists are on scene and continued mitigation is occurring."

Homes in an area 800m around the site were evacuated, according to the sheriff, and residents were taken to a shelter in nearby Prinsburg.

BNSF officials said 22 cars derailed, including about 10 carrying ethanol, and the track remains blocked, but that no injuries were reported due to the accident.

The cause of the derailment hasn't been determined. EPA officials said on Twitter that four ethanol cars ruptured and the flammable fuel additive caught fire in the derailment.

They continued to burn Thursday morning, ten hours after the derailment.....
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Message 2117004 - Posted: 2 Apr 2023, 19:47:53 UTC

And yet another jumps the rails.

Train derails 25 cars in Montana, spilling unconfirmed contents.

At least 25 cars derailed from a train in Montana on Sunday, spilling their contents onto the ground and into a nearby body of water.

First responders say there is no threat to the public, but there has yet to be confirmation about what the affected containers were carrying. Montana Rail Link, which owns the railroad, is aware of the situation, but the company that owns the train has yet to be identified, according to NBC Montana.

The Sanders County Sheriffs Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

There have not been any reported injuries from the crash....
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Message 2117044 - Posted: 3 Apr 2023, 21:15:40 UTC

What's the economics of train derailments and the cleanups?

Or is there a profitable game of the insurance pays?...


Certainly, someone suffers paying...

Stay clear folks!!
Martin
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Message 2117048 - Posted: 3 Apr 2023, 22:41:36 UTC - in response to Message 2117044.  

Certainly, someone suffers paying...

Maybe not. Might be like the airlines and there is a false low limit on damages by law.
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Message 2117050 - Posted: 3 Apr 2023, 23:44:16 UTC - in response to Message 2117044.  

What's the economics of train derailments and the cleanups?
Don't know how ture it is, but i've heard of the Ford Pinto, and the problem with it's fuel tank in a collision.
Supposedly Ford figured out it was cheaper to payoff for any deaths or injuries that occurred than to recall & repair the entire production of Pintos that were affected.

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the railways have done the same cost/benefit analysis. Save so much money by cutting back on maintenance/ increasing servicing intervals. Whatever costs are incurred as a result of the anticipated increase in accidents & incidents will still be paid for by the reduced maintenance costs (at least until the lack of maintenance & age of the fleets reaches the point where the accidents & incidents go well beyond the earlier estimates & the whole business starts collapsing in on itself. By that time those that made the decisions will have picked up all their bonuses for improving the bottom line (even though it was only temporary & a result of accounting double speak) and have moved on to greener pastures).
Ain't free enterprise great?
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Message 2117056 - Posted: 4 Apr 2023, 4:06:23 UTC

And in Montana a train spills its load of beer and powdered clay into a river.

Hard cleanup: Montana train derailment spills beer and clay

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Message 2117060 - Posted: 4 Apr 2023, 7:59:05 UTC
Last modified: 4 Apr 2023, 7:59:20 UTC

AP - Deadly train derailment near The Hague

BBC - Dutch rail crash: One dead after passenger train hits crane and derails
At least one person has been killed and about 30 injured - some seriously - after a passenger train derailed in the western Netherlands.

Emergency services say the overnight crash happened after the train transporting about 50 people hit a construction crane near the village of Voorschoten.

A freight train is also reported to have been damaged in the collision.

Some people were treated at the scene but 19 have been taken to hospital.

The crash happened at about 03:25 local time (01:25 GMT) on Tuesday.
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Message 2117071 - Posted: 4 Apr 2023, 13:12:40 UTC - in response to Message 2117056.  

For those USA trains, there looks to be a repeated story of a concertinaed pile-up before the brakes take effect...

Maybe some design flaw?...


Stay safe folks!
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Message 2117097 - Posted: 4 Apr 2023, 20:00:27 UTC - in response to Message 2117090.  

With the air activated, air operated brakes, used on freight trains there is a fair time delay between the brakes being applied to the first vehicle in the train and the the last vehicle in the train. Depending on the exact type of brakes used (there are two major type, each with a couple of sub-types) and the train length this delay can be from a second or two up to about 30 seconds or more before the brakes start to come on at the rear of the train, and then it takes time for the braking to build-up to its maximum. So, if the leading loco derails, but dos not break the brake air circuit it might be a few seconds between its derailment and the brake lines being broken (which cause an automatic full brake application) during which time the train will bunch up, and be more prone to the concertenering we see so often. Add to that, if one of the wagons really comes of the rails and decelerates abruptly (or stops "instantly") the crumpled mess is inevitable, even on good straight and level track.
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Message 2117120 - Posted: 5 Apr 2023, 1:05:53 UTC - in response to Message 2117097.  

With the air activated, air operated brakes, used on freight trains there is a fair time delay between the brakes being applied to the first vehicle in the train and the the last vehicle in the train. Depending on the exact type of brakes used (there are two major type, each with a couple of sub-types) and the train length this delay can be from a second or two up to about 30 seconds or more before the brakes start to come on at the rear of the train, and then it takes time for the braking to build-up to its maximum. So, if the leading loco derails, but dos not break the brake air circuit it might be a few seconds between its derailment and the brake lines being broken (which cause an automatic full brake application) during which time the train will bunch up, and be more prone to the concertenering we see so often. Add to that, if one of the wagons really comes of the rails and decelerates abruptly (or stops "instantly") the crumpled mess is inevitable, even on good straight and level track.

All of this also depends on the presence of absence of an EOT (end of train device) or FRED. Modern EOT's are supposed to detect an emergency application of the brakes and immediately release the air pressure at the end of the train. If the engineer calls for emergency application, as the EOT is in radio contact with the lead locomotive it drops air pressure at the speed of light. All of this is complicated more if the train has DPU's (distributed power units) or helper locomotives. Part of the reason for the FRED is to replace the brakeman on the caboose, who had to tell the engineer when the air pressure at the rear was enough that the brakes were released.

It is all extremely over complex, as it was added on to many times, and not how a system would be designed today, but it works and replacing it on all the rolling stock would be time and cost prohibitive.

Of course as trains carry mixed weights on the cars, brake application will have very different effectiveness on a car by car basis. You expect loaded cars to pile into empties as the empties stop much faster.

It is amazing how much of the time it works.
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Message 2117212 - Posted: 7 Apr 2023, 8:48:57 UTC

I'll believe this when I see it actually happen.

Long train regulations coming?

The Senate is aiming for a late April markup of the Railway Safety Act of 2023, which would further regulate railroads after the East Palestine, Ohio, disaster.

The Feb. 3 38-car train derailment led to a chemical spill in that Ohio town of about 4,700 people, a few miles west of the Pennsylvania state line. The episode became a controlled burn, with a temporary evacuation of most locals, and triggered disputes over possible soil and air contamination.

For now, the railroads are not publicly fighting the legislation.

“[The Association of American Railroads] has not opposed the bill but has noted there are elements that could use closer evaluation,” Ted Greener, spokesman for the AAR, which represents railroads before Congress, told the Washington Examiner.

Whether that amounts to the railroads keeping their powder dry, however, remains to be seen. That likely will have a lot to do with the final shape that the bill takes.....
But something certainly needs to be done

Cheers.
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Message 2117224 - Posted: 7 Apr 2023, 13:02:26 UTC - in response to Message 2117212.  

They will fight with their favourite weapon - inertia. It costs less than implementing the modifications, far less than lawyers to fight in court, and hey, the only loosers are the insurance companies....
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Message 2117232 - Posted: 7 Apr 2023, 16:36:36 UTC - in response to Message 2117224.  

The insurance company bean counters predict the payouts and raise the policy premiums but that is hidden on the P&L. The shipper always pays and he charges the consumer.
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Message 2117359 - Posted: 9 Apr 2023, 20:52:38 UTC

This company just doesn't want to stay on the rails.

Multiple Norfolk Southern train cars derail near Pittsburgh.

Early reports say that the cars were empty and staid upright this time.
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Message 2117371 - Posted: 10 Apr 2023, 0:41:49 UTC - in response to Message 2117359.  

Early reports say that the cars were empty and staid upright this time.

A lot of RR's have problems with empties. They put them too far in the front. Just ask any model RR guy why he has to put weights in his cars to keep them on the tracks.
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Message 2117721 - Posted: 15 Apr 2023, 21:04:51 UTC

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Message 2118026 - Posted: 21 Apr 2023, 9:08:09 UTC

It maybe over a year late and well over budget, but it has finally happened.

First driverless metro train crosses Sydney Harbour underwater.



Cheers.
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Message 2118347 - Posted: 26 Apr 2023, 22:02:47 UTC

YouTube - The Telegraph - Train maker builds GWR King Class replica worth £20,000
A hobbyist built a replica of the GWR King Class steam train - and it could sell for up to £20,000.
Vic Whittaker, 79, spent two years and 2,000 hours building an exact replica of the Great Western Railway 6000 Class locomotive.
The 150kg train, which is made out of brass, iron and copper, is kept in his workshop.


Once a week, the train is available for visitors to ride at Worden Park in Leyland, Lancashire.
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Message 2118372 - Posted: 27 Apr 2023, 6:03:02 UTC - in response to Message 2118347.  

That is an exceptional piece of work, a great example of quality workmanship.
Grant
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