by DutchRailnut
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 wheelhttp://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/bas ... ledger?nnj
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."
If Conductors are in charge, why are they promoted to be Engineer???
Retired Triebfahrzeugführer. I am not a moderator.
Retired Triebfahrzeugführer. I am not a moderator.