Railroad Thread

[J]

Another Boeing Train

We've seen photos of those green 737 fuselages traveling from Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, KS but did you know another train brings 777 parts from Japan. Here is a captioned image of the movement in 20-foot-wide containers up a 5.6% grade. (That is pretty steep for a railroad.)

https://railpictures.net/photo/825418/

[elaw]

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/ora ... achusetts/

Oops!

[J]

I blame CHINA.

From last year - this is all you can see in front of the paywall:

Chinese-owned rail company launches new project at Springfield plant, faces new heat
Tuesdays launch of a $647 million contract with LA Metro at the giant Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corp. plant in Springfield comes as critics are warning against doing business with the company.

A letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin June 1 tells of “grave concern” among a “wide bipartisan swath of policy leaders” worried that CRRC’s backing by the communist government poses a threat.


https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/06/07 ... -new-heat/

[3WE]

...and does anyone care that the Trump-Full-Speed-Ahead-Stockholer-Profit-Cowboy-Improvisation-Screw-Safety-US Railroad system had a total train disaster of explody and water-contaminating, not_polymerized poly-vinyl cloride tankiees due to a failed bearing.

We need more regulation, bearing oversight, public punishment, attention to procedure, trainie bannings and lots of firings.

[Not_Karl]

...train brings 777 parts from Japan...

Are there trainpictures of the ocean crossing?

I blame CHINA.

If it's any consolation, our new trainies are Not_only by CRRC, they're also made in China.

trainie bannings...

Just ban ALL bearings and then we will have very little to ban after that .

[3WE]

638D76A9-71E5-4C98-A505-630B29AEC8C8.png (823.7 KiB) Viewed 1342 times

[elaw]

Made out of one of my favorite "train things": the Budd RDC!

I think a modern version of that, with batteries and electric motors, could be an interesting addition to commuter rail operations.

[3WE]

Made out of one of my favorite "aeroplanie things": an engine pair off of a B-52 (more or less)

I think a modern version of that, with batteries and electric motors, could be an interesting addition to commuter rail operations.

...an alternative viewpoint.

[J]

What's not to like about the New York Central car with B36 engines mounted on the roof (with a large inside strut to support the load.)

We have updates of the RDC on the road. Stadler, a Swiss company, has several of these in operation around the US.
https://www.stadlerrail.com/media/pdf/g ... 15e_us.pdf
Unlike the RDC's with their multiple underfloor flat pancake engines these have a diesel engine in the center section.

Stadler is also offering a hydrogen train
https://www.gosbcta.com/sbcta-and-stadl ... red-train/

Progress Rail's EMD division is ffering a battery electric freight locomotive. This one is smaller to fit smaller profiles overseas.
https://www.progressrail.com/en/Segment ... Joule.html

Wabtec (formerly GE) Battery Electric Road Locomotive has already been tested in California between Barstow and Stockton (with a heavy grade in the middle.) A larger capacity locomotive is currently under development. These would not be intended to operate alone but would be accompanied by conventional diesel locomotives. Their extra power would assit climbing hills and their batteries would be recharged by using energy from the dynamic brakes (rather than converting it to heat and blowing out the roof as on a conventional locomotive.
https://www.railwayage.com/news/bnsf-wa ... ts-are-in/

Here is a short video of dynamic brakes glowing as they absorb the energy to slow the train. I was on a train on night where something went wrong and the brake grids got so hot they went incandescent and burned out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy4DCQoFYDI&t=13s

[Not_Karl]

turbinietrainie.png

Looks like Iron Man.

[3WE]

turbinietrainie.png

Looks like Iron Man.

It’s a trainiephoto.

Had it been an aeroplaniephoto, it would look like Composite Man.

[Not_Karl]

Had it been an aeroplaniephoto, it would look like Composite Cowboy.

Fixed and INDEED.

[3WE]

By The Associated Press and DEMETRIS NELLAS and COSTAS KANTOURIS

Published: Mar. 5, 2023 at 3:39 PM CST|Updated: 20 hours ago

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A stationmaster accused of causing Greece’s deadliest train disaster was charged with negligent homicide and jailed pending trial Sunday, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized for any responsibility Greece’s government may bear for the tragedy.

An examining magistrate and a prosecutor agreed that multiple counts of homicide as well as charges of causing bodily harm and endangering transportation safety should be brought against the railway employee.

At least 57 people, many of them in their teens and 20s, were killed when a northbound passenger train and a southbound freight train collided late Tuesday north of the city of Larissa, in central Greece.

The 59-year-old stationmaster allegedly directed the two trains traveling in opposite directions onto the same track. He spent 7 1/2 hours Sunday testifying about the events leading up to the crash before he was charged and ordered held.


“My client testified truthfully, without fearing if doing so would incriminate him,” Stephanos Pantzartzidis, the stationmaster’s lawyer, told reporters. “The decision (to jail him) was expected, given the importance of the case.”

Pantzartzidis implied that others besides his client share blame, saying that judges should investigate whether more than one stationmaster should have been working in Larissa at the time of the collision.

“For 20 minutes, he was in charge of (train) safety in all central Greece,” the lawyer said of his client.

Greek media have reported that the automated signaling system in the area of the crash was not functioning, making the stationmaster’s mistake possible. Stationmasters along that part of Greece’s main trunk line communicate with each other and with train drivers via two-way radios, and the switches are operated manually.

The prime minister promised a swift investigation of the collision and said the new Greek transportation minister would release a safety improvement plan. Once a new parliament is in place, a commission also will be named to investigate decades of mismanagement of the country’s railway system, Mitsotakis said.

In an initial statement Wednesday, Mitsotakis had said the crash resulted from a “tragic human error.” Opposition parties pounced on the remark, accusing the prime minister of trying to cover up the state’s role and making the inexperienced stationmaster a scapegoat.

“I owe everyone, and especially the victims’ relatives, a big apology, both personal and on behalf of all who governed the country for many years,” Mitsotakis wrote Sunday on Facebook. “In 2023, it is inconceivable that two trains move in different directions on the same track and no one notices. We cannot, we do not want to, and we must not hide behind the human error.”


Greece’s railways long suffered from chronic mismanagement, including lavish spending on projects that were eventually abandoned or significantly delayed, Greek media have reported in several exposes. With state railway company Hellenic Railways billions of euros in debt, maintenance work was put off, according to news reports.

A retired railway union leader, Panayotis Paraskevopoulos, told Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the signaling system in the area monitored by the Larissa stationmaster malfunctioned six years ago and was never repaired.

Police and prosecutors have not identified the stationmaster, in line with Greek law. However, Hellenic Railways, also known as OSE, revealed the stationmaster’s name Saturday, in an announcement suspending the company inspector who appointed him. The stationmaster also has been suspended.

Greek media have reported that the stationmaster, a former porter with the railway company, was transferred to a Ministry of Education desk job in 2011, when Greece’s creditors demanded reductions in the number of public employees. The 59-year-old was transferred back to the railway company in mid-2022 and started a 5-month course to train as a stationmaster.


Upon completing the course, he was assigned to Larissa on Jan. 23, according to his own Facebook post. However, he spent the next month month rotating among other stations before returning to Larissa in late February, days before the Feb. 28 collision, Greek media reported.

On Sunday, railway unions organized a protest rally in central Athens attended by about 12,000 people according to authorities.

Five people were arrested and seven police officers were injured when a group of more than 200 masked, black-clad individuals started throwing pieces of marble, rocks, bottles and firebombs at officers, who gave chase along a central avenue in the city while using tear gas and stun grenades.

In Thessaloniki, about 3,000 people attended two protest rallies. Several of the crash victims were students at the city’s Aristotle University, Greece’s largest, with over 50,000 students..


The larger protest, organized by left-wing activists, marched to a government building. No incidents were reported at that event.

In the other, staged by Communist Party members at the White Tower, the city’s signature monument, there was a brief scuffle with police when the protesters tried to place a banner on the monument.

“The Communist Party organized a symbolic protest today in front of the White Tower to denounce the crime in Tempe, because it is a premeditated crime, a crime committed by the company and the bourgeois state that supports these companies,” Giannis Delis, a communist lawmaker, told The Associated Press.

___

Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Wait for the final report?

[elaw]

So this guy had barely a month of experience and was working alone in a situation where it sounds like there not only should have been more people but more senior people, but the fault is his and his alone?

Obviously there are a lot of facts and details missing here, but based just on that article, the word "scapegoat" is the first that comes to mind.

[3WE]

So this guy had barely a month of experience and was working alone in a situation where it sounds like there not only should have been more people but more senior people, but the fault is his and his alone?

Obviously there are a lot of facts and details missing here, but based just on that article, the word "scapegoat" is the first that comes to mind.

And Evan’s automation is on the MEL, to boot…

[Gabriel]

Wait for the final report?

Nah, probable cause: Newbie stationmaster screwed up.

Next!

[3WE]

A few comments:

-We need hell-better MECHANICAL engineers.

-In fact, the brand new, automated locomotives (to fight cowboy idiocy improvisation) seem buggy like 737-Maxes (No idea on the Lavs).

-Aeroplanies appear more reliable- and only 80 passengers…that’s not_good business.

-There seems to be some traditional, not_airline-like customer service.

Amtrak train loses power, strands around 80 people in Devils Lake

By Alix Larsen

Published: Mar. 29, 2023 at 2:02 PM CDT|Updated: 6 hours ago

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (Valley News Live) - The Devils Lake Fire Department and Amtrak say an Amtrak train lost power and stranded around 80 travelers on Wednesday.

Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari tells Valley News Live train 7 and 27, which are connected, developed a mechanical problem. The problem couldn’t be immediately fixed, but the train was eventually able to make it to Devils Lake, where travelers were unloaded.

The train originally took off from Chicago and was headed to Seattle and Portland. Amtrak is paying for the food and lodging expenses for those stranded in Devils Lake. There will be another train coming through to pick them up Thursday. Magliari says Amtrak offered to pay for the flights of those who needed to get to their planned destination immediately.

Magliari says the city’s emergency responders help to warm up and transport people to the Spirit Lake Casino was quick.

There were no injuries to any passengers.

Copyright 2023 KVLY. All rights reserved.

[Not_Karl]

...train 7 and 27...Chicago...Seattle...

I blame Boeing.
Also, Devils Lake sounds like a lovely place to be stranded in (or like an Intel product). I wonder if they use triangular wheels there?

[elaw]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/us/raymo ... index.html

[Mr. Snappy]

Mother Russia is make superior vodka

And superior rail transport

[Mr. Snappy]

[3WE]

Bad signals and switch alignment leads to train collision in India and significant did-diededness

We need more regulation, oversight, screening, procedures, checklists, automation, training, public physical punishment and fired Boeing executives.

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/ind ... 023-06-03/

[elaw]

Right in 3WE's back yard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz-hD05sgg

[3WE]

Right in 3WE's back yard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz-hD05sgg

Indeed! I have failed in monitoring total transportation disasters in my area for the forum.

That is downtown and in view from out cricket stadium…and the McDonnel Douglas Stainless Steel Arch. it’s also an extremely major thoroughfare…

I’m guessing it was cleaned up very promptly…no idea where to get the final report.

In the realm of trivia- this would also be visible from left aeroplanie windows when the airport is operating to the WNW.

[Not_Karl]

Right in 3WE's back yard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz-hD05sgg

I hope it wasn't carrying parts for those Flyoverian-made 777s...