About that wheel in Suffern

I guess it was true...kind of hard to believe they hid this for almost a week.

NJ Transit inspects rail cars after one loses a wheel
Thursday, June 24, 2004
BY JOE MALINCONICO
Newark Star-Ledger
NJ Transit has put hundreds of its rail cars through special
precautionary inspections during the past week after a wheel fell off a
Main Line passenger train that had just finished its final trip of the
night.

Train No.1119 was going less than 10 mph through NJ Transit's rail yard
in Suffern, N.Y., when a wheel came off one of the passenger cars at
about 7:30 p.m. June 17, transit officials said.

The train, which remained upright after losing the wheel, had just
dropped off its last passengers at nearby Suffern station and no one was
injured, officials said. Train No.1119, which travels from Hoboken
through Passaic and Bergen counties, usually carries 400 to 500
passengers, but officials said they were not sure how many people rode
it that night.

"They were very fortunate," said Robert Vallochi, general chairman of
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. "Prior to that,
that train was going 70 mph."

The incident marked the second time in the past year that an overheated
wheel came off an NJ Transit train.
Last week's incident involved a different type of rail car and different
cause from the one that happened last July, when a Northeast Corridor
train en route to Manhattan lost a wheel while carrying 1,200 people.
Officials said the last time they could recall a wheel falling off a
train had been about 15 years ago.

NJ Transit spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox said the preliminary investigation
of last week's incident indicates it was a "highly unusual occurrence"
involving one particular car and did not involve a flaw in the design of
the rail equipment that would affect other trains.

Bowersox said investigators believe some undetermined "lateral stress,"
or impact on the train, broke the seal on the wheel's bearings, allowing
lubricant to seep out and causing the steel wheel to become so hot that
it broke from the axle.

Officials are not yet sure what caused the impact, which may have
occurred hours or days before the overheating. For example, the damage
could have been done during a "hard coupling" when the car was connected
to another car on the train.

Last year, officials determined an electrical surge had caused the wheel
on the Northeast Corridor train to overheat. The railroad subsequently
changed the way it cleans and checks the machinery designed to prevent
such power surges.

After last week's incident, NJ Transit had its crews take a closer look
at the wheels on 550 passenger cars during their routine overnight
visual inspections, Bowersox said.

Then, starting Saturday, the railroad added a new level of inspections
for the wheels on its passenger cars. Crews used special infrared
devices to measure the temperatures of the wheels on the cars
immediately after they had been in service to get a more reliable test
for overheating problems. So far, the wheels on 450 of the cars have
undergone the infrared checks, which will be repeated monthly, Bowersox
said.

"Obviously, given the history, we take these kinds of mechanical matters
very seriously," Bowersox said. "This is not a safety issue with our
fleet, and we've taken every precaution possible to make sure that this
was an isolated incident."

NJ Transit is designing heat detectors that would be installed on the
tracks to prevent trains with overheated wheels from continuing on their
routes.

"I feel pretty confident that they're doing an adequate job finding the
problems and fixing it," said Vallochi, the head of the engineers union.

"For now, any reasonable person would take Transit at its word that this
was an isolated incident," said Doug Bowen, president of the New Jersey
Association of Railroad Passengers. "If it happens a second or third
time, then we would be concerned."

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/bas ... ledger?nnj

What type of car was it that lost the wheel? Also, I assume all the Comets being checked, not just the type that lost the wheel?

If it was the Main Line, I'm assuming C1.

Mr. Bowen, with all due respect, I think you could have come up with a better "soundbyte" for the article. Just because the train had no passengers on it at that time, doesn't mean it should be swept under the rug......

Does anyone here find it odd that this happened over a week ago? Does anyone want to think of the possibles that could have happened, a mile down the railroad with passegners on the train? "Isolated incidents"????????? ......the derailment of 3920 was an "isolated incident" then, what is the difference between this and that? No passengers and a slow speed, and a boat load of luck on NJT's side. At least 3920 involved MU's, where there was actually some "things" down there to make or could cause the wheel fall off. This was an unpowered coach, no traction motors, no wires, no nothing. Just a simple bearing and brake rigging. It was a C1 BTW.

Bowersox said investigators believe some undetermined "lateral stress,"
or impact on the train, broke the seal on the wheel's bearings, allowing
lubricant to seep out and causing the steel wheel to become so hot that
it broke from the axle.

Boy, this sounds awfully familiar to what they said about the derailment of 3920 doesn't it?

Officials are not yet sure what caused the impact, which may have
occurred hours or days before the overheating. For example, the damage
could have been done during a "hard coupling" when the car was connected
to another car on the train.

I haven't worked much in the yard, and im not an "oltimer" yet on the RR, and "seasoned" railroaders have forgotten more over their careers than I know now and will probably ever know, but I have to question how a "hard coupling" would cause a break in the seal of the bearings.............that sounds like hogwash to me.....

It should make everyone wonder, how did Mr. Malinconico find out about this? I SERIOUSLY doubt NJT brass called him up and said "hey Joe, we had a wheel fall off our train in Suffern last week, you wanna do a story on it?" HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..........

I, along with many, many of my coworkers are VERY concerned about this incident. And there should be more of an uproar about this an a simple, "oh, it was nothing, an isolated incident, im SURE they are fixing it" Thats exactly what they said last July......

This is now AT LEAST the second time in less than a year!!!!!!!

Yeah, I was up in Denville having an organ lesson yesterday and right as my teacher was dropping me off (he himself is a train enthusiast) and he said that he read in the paper yesterday about a train losing a wheel (and I said, well I gess that rumour was true.) I imediately knew it must have been a Comet I and just as I thought of that, in pulled my Comet I Mt. Olive to Hoboken local. LOL! Yea, I'm a bit concerned about the Comet Is. They are getting old and this incident just tells us as much as we (or at least I) like them, their time is coming.

EDIT: And I am too surprised that this kept under the covers for a week. I figured it was true being that it was both a railfan (in here) rumour and a rumour on the railroad (as Jtgshu reported.)

So now question is hom much more is NJT MofE trying to hide.
and how safely is Passenger equipment inspected or paper approved.

The lateral impact "reason" doesn't make any sense. That would indicate the train was impacted from the side to have caused a lateral impact. Coupling of cars together would have caused a longitudinal impact. Sure when you start dealing with vectors and that stuff there is a lateral load but it is less than what it will experience in a curve. I sure hope the bearings can take that since they experience longittudinal loading everytime they apply the breaks.

I'm waiting for the C1's are old excuss so they will need to purchase more cars even though they are taking delivery of the replacements.

During my many Amtrak safety classes, they always say stay far away from moving NJT equipment on the NEC as things are always falling off of them.

NJT keeps breaking their promise on Comet I retirement! They were to be phased out by 2003, and still are on the property even with all these C5's! They're now in their 34th year of service since their introduction in 1970.

NJT keeps breaking their promise on Comet I retirement

When you have a brake system on Comet Vs that won't work, it would be premature to retire cars on which the brakes work.

Was the car involved by any chance a low level Comet I? I would think that if it was a 'Slider', it would have a bit more deferred maintenance than a high level Comet I due to the fact that the low level cars are currently being taken out of service and being retired.

NJT keeps breaking their promise on Comet I retirement! They were to be phased out by 2003, and still are on the property even with all these C5's! They're now in their 34th year of service since their introduction in 1970.

I think you'll be lucky to see the Comet Vs around for even half that long.

During my many Amtrak safety classes, they always say stay far away from moving NJT equipment on the NEC as things are always falling off of them.

Wow Amtrak shouldn't really be talking about NJT's equipment. I guess they haven't stepped back and looked at theirs in a while!

arrow wrote:Wow Amtrak shouldn't really be talking about NJT's equipment. I guess they haven't stepped back and looked at theirs in a while!

Well, at least the Acelas don't seem to be shedding their roof shrouds anymore! :D

The "lateral impact" and "hard switching" is a vain attempt to place blame on the most obvious target, the crews doing the switching, and not the real problem, maintence, or better yet a lack thereof.

If im short a dollar out of my NJT working fund, I could very easily be fired. NJT has now lost AT LEAST 2 wheels of its trains in the past year, I hope that some of the mechanical forces heads start to roll!!!!

But NJT can't say that the cars are unsafe and that its maintence issues that are causing these problems, that would be a PR NIGHTMARE....but they didn't learn a thing from the 3920 derailment, and that shot they had to fix the equipment, and keep it all maintained, so nothing like this could happen again.

Jtgshu wrote:....but they didn't learn a thing from the 3920 derailment, and that shot they had to fix the equipment, and keep it all maintained, so nothing like this could happen again.

There was a lot of good that came from that derailment. Fixing the MUs that had that problem to prevent it from happening again, increasing passenger awarement of delays and problems, putting the spotlight on NJT etc. But you are correct, there was a lot more that NJT could have learned. As I recall, they had to work around the clock one weekend to check all the MUs and they pulled them all from service (that was one fun weekend on the Gladstone Branch!!!!) but instead of going all out to fix problems that have occured, they should do more in terms of preventative maintenance.

They fixed what was already BROKEN, after the fact - they didn't fix what was BREAKING........

Yes, NJT pulled a good portion of the MU's out of service to check them, and repair the ones that needed to be repaired for that problem last year, but if anyone thinks that while they were in the shops, that they got a good once over and everything else that was in need of work was fixed while they were in the shops, you are sorely mistaken.

NJT's hands are tied to a point, however, in my opinion. They run so many trains, with so many people on these trains, that loosing even a small portion of the rolling stock can be disasterous. But there has to be a better defined point when they say "this train or car is unsafe, it simply cannot go out over the road" - so a train gets delayed or even cancelled in extreme circumstances. Better to err on the side of caution, in my opinion. Countless, countless, COUNTLESS times, I will get a train and something MAJORLY is wrong with it, doors don't open or close, trainline or locally, no AC/Heat, leaking or flooding cars, whatever you can think of.....and we will report it. The answer 99 percent of the time is "we know all about it, its getting shopped tonight" (even if its early in the morning, meaning its giong to be running all day) Most times, its not shopped, and then they are admitting that they know the equipment shouldn't be out on the road. But they need the seats, and tell us to deal with it, but if anything goes wrong with the crap equipment, its on us. "Why was your train late????" "We got a complaint about a person missing their stop because the doors didn't open" "A spotter reported that no announcements were made on the train" the list goes on and on.....

I just don't see how the mechanical forces can get away with putting some of the equipment out the way it is. Now, there are some great mechanics, car inspectors, eletricians, etc that work for NJT, as with any other craft, there are the bums who don't do squat. But still in all, who is the final one deciding to put some of these equipment out on the road, and who is making the call on what to fix when the stuff is in the shops, and what "can wait till later".......THAT is the person i have a major problem with.