Main-Line Derailment

It was reported that both trains were moving east. If this is so there may have been no workers in the area

ML 2 is back up through the area. A test train went east after 5pm and it was back up about 10 minutes later.

Head-end View wrote:I visited the scene this morning. There is damage to the left-front corner of the lead car #7034, and yellow paint staining along the side of the second car #7033. The worst damage appeared to be at the left-front corner of the 3rd car #7044. Those 3 cars are derailed, the second and third the most seriously. The remaining cars appeared intact.

H-E View, MJD and Everyone:

7033-7034 and 7043-7044 as we now know took the brunt of the damage in this accident - as K&K notes if it is found that the center sills or frame on
any of these cars is indeed bent they will more then likely be written off - but before any decisions will be made the NTSB will move forward with its
investigation along with these cars being held aside for any possible legal actions for the time being. Arch Street Shop will likely perform any work...

As far as I know there are no current M7 mismatched pairs in service - these two pairs date from 2002 and are now 15 years old - which is almost
hard to believe to me noting that they are approaching "middle age" this year - the M7s have held up steady and did as well as could be expected
in this incident noting that the vast majority of riders thankfully walked away from this wreck...

MACTRAXX

something doesnt sound right. it seems to me the work train couldnt have been moving( as it keeps saying in the media) , if indeed it was fouling the other track( assuming its correct that nothing was somehow extending off the side) . if so, the work train would have had to be on the other track, and just barely passed over the switch before the passenger train hit it. no way would they both would have been traveling on the same track so close together. if it was never on the same track as the pass train, it would never have crossed the switch and been able to foul the track. does that sound right?

I'm very puzzled about this incident too. If nothing extends sideways from the work train and they were on adjacent tracks that run straight, how could one have fouled the other? The picture in Newsday (for what it's worth) seems to indicate the work train was partially on the crossover, fouling the other track. But if this was true, then the switches would have had to be reversed, right? In which case the passenger train approaching a reversed switch should have had a stop signal, prior to this point.

If I'm missing something or just wrong, please correct me.

I'm with you guys -- there is some key piece of information that hasn't come out yet. Guess that's why they do an investigation.

when switches are hand cranked they can be in reverse without interfering with other tracks signaling.
my understanding is they were working in that interlocking.

It could have picked the switch. If it was traveling east (as has been reported) across the facing point switch in the reverse position, the PTS car would have just diverged right into the passing train causing a much worse situation than what actually happened.


It's just amazing how close this accident came to being much worse.

MACTRAXX wrote:

Head-end View wrote:I visited the scene this morning. There is damage to the left-front corner of the lead car #7034, and yellow paint staining along the side of the second car #7033. The worst damage appeared to be at the left-front corner of the 3rd car #7044. Those 3 cars are derailed, the second and third the most seriously. The remaining cars appeared intact.

H-E View, MJD and Everyone:

7033-7034 and 7043-7044 as we now know took the brunt of the damage in this accident - as K&K notes if it is found that the center sills or frame on
any of these cars is indeed bent they will more then likely be written off - but before any decisions will be made the NTSB will move forward with its
investigation along with these cars being held aside for any possible legal actions for the time being. Arch Street Shop will likely perform any work...

As far as I know there are no current M7 mismatched pairs in service - these two pairs date from 2002 and are now 15 years old - which is almost
hard to believe to me noting that they are approaching "middle age" this year - the M7s have held up steady and did as well as could be expected
in this incident noting that the vast majority of riders thankfully walked away from this wreck...

MACTRAXX

7053-7088 mismatched pair is still running. Had it in one of my consists recently.

I'll second that SwingMan. Very lucky it wasn't much worse, like the cars falling down the embankment for instance. What's amazing is that even with LIRR's very effective Automatic Speed Control System that's been insuring operational safety for about sixty years, these oddball situations can still develop allowing safety to fall thru the cracks and this kind of accident to happen.

There are three right now:

7053-7088
7087-7280
7493-7376

The last time the LIRR needed repairs done to some M7s, they sent them up to the Bombardier facility up north. I am unaware if that is still possible.

Sounds like Gremlins to me.

Believe the switch machines at "Nassau 1" were NOT dual control,needing a signal maintainer to crank the points.
If the point rails were not tight against the stock rail,then it's easy to pick the switch.

SwingMan wrote:It could have picked the switch. If it was traveling east (as has been reported) across the facing point switch in the reverse position, the PTS car would have just diverged right into the passing train causing a much worse situation than what actually happened.


It's just amazing how close this accident came to being much worse.

SM: I agree with you...I sent a message to Head-End View earlier this evening with this thought
I was reluctant to post this being speculation on my part...

When I noted the location of the crossover switch the thought crossed my mind after noticing
how and where the sideswipe occurred...

Thanks for the info on the three mismatched M7 pairs (along with ITB)
I will be looking out for them in my LIRR travels...

MACTRAXX

After a further outage for some permanent repairs last night, both tracks and it appears the switches as well are back in service.

Where was last night's switch failure that stopped the Main Line for a while?