Train wreck in Los Angeles, SUV's owner and push/pull debate

SPAM. TROLL. NOTHING to do with model railroads.

HOTMAIL throw away address.

Please don't feed the TROLL.

In a push mode, there certainly isn't anything to keep objects from going straight under the train and into the trucks.

But its been done for a lot of years with some level of safety.

Bill

I'll bet it wouldn't have happened with a steam loco in the front. Can't you see a Jeep in a confrontation with a Daylight?

Not particularly true, I saw a pic of a GS-4 that struck a vehicle and tripped and fell. Supposedly the steel pilots of the GS-2 thru 6 class locos were to fold under in a collision. She was laying on her side, that pic was in the San Jose office of the California Highway patrol office. I tried to get a copy of that photo but the Sarge ran me off..............the people in the vehicle didn't fare too well, I was told it was a pretty grizzly accident. GS-4, one...........vehicle zero. Trains usually win at grade crossing accidents...........

My your certainly picky!

Most NG's start screaming OT when there's things like politics on a coin collecting NG. Your complaining about a guy posting about RAILROAD stuff to a bunch of people posting about model RAILROADS.

-- DW

To tell you the truth, derailments are 'funny'. You could do the same thing a dozen times, and they wouldn't derail. But get a piece of steel in a flangeway so it gets the wheel up one inch, and you done. Loco's derail at grade crossings also. It's just not common for either a car or engine to get derailed hitting anything. But it certainly can happen to either.

--DW

Yup, just west of here on Monday a guy in a log truck hit the second unit or the baggage car (reports differ) on the w/b Via Canadian at a grade crossing. The train was doing 70 mph and every car & engine derailed. No fatalities and amazingly no serious injuries. They did have to cut the idiot driver out of the cab of his semi though.

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Based on what I've read on other NGs, it seems the derailment was caused by the SUV being pushed along by the train, then snagginig a switch, at which point the pilot collapsed and the cab car overrode the SUV, derailing. The rest of the wreck was "bad luck", in that the cars jacknifed and simulataneously got wedged between another Metrolink train was passing in the opposite direction and a parked UP work train. Had the other trains not been present, the wreck might have been serious, with cars turning over and skidding, but the car ends might not have shredded as they seem to have by hitting the other trains.

I would say that a concern as big as the push-mode is the construction of the pilot on the cab car. It seems to be there for little more than to hold the bell assembly and knock minor objects out of the way. Seems to me the bumper posts within the body of the car should be extended down to include the pilot, and/or shape the pilot in such a way that it is more likely to divert objects (e.g., like the snowplow pilots commonly seen on locomotives).

I recall the "pilot" on the PCC streetcars. There was a board perpendicular to the rails at the front. If something forced this back, it would trip a "plow" (not sure of the correct terminology) that would fall to rail level and scoop up whatever was in the path.

Rick

A couple of decades ago, the cab car of a push-pull train hit a cow that had wandered through a gap in the fence onto the track at Polmont, between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Several passengers were killed.

This led to a rethink in the way cab cars were used in the UK. So they introduced DVTs (Driving Van Trailers) with souped up and re-shaped pilots, ballast to increase the weight etc. They didn't carry any passengers, just van traffic.

There seems to have been a relaxation of the rules with some of the high-speed diesel and electrical multiple units. But these don't have the weight and momentum of a pushing engine.

Usually called 'lifeguards', could also be 'mancatchers' but no way would they cope with an SUV. Keith

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