Engine car comes within 1" of falling off bridge today

What do you think of this? Read the whole thing.

28 January 2020

Today an engine car on a train reportedly came within an inch of tumbling off a bridge in Illinois and that this may happen every day. The train was travelling at speeds up to 79mph and could have been carrying up to 300 people plus a food preparation car with hot water and coffee. In similar events, Twitter users report that an $11 billion project to speed up trains resulted in a crash and failure to stay on a bridge. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Jeff Rosen recently wrote a letter to Senator Charles Schumer indicated that his failure to approve Ron Batory to a position that oversees railroad safety may have something to do with this.

One railroad has noted that they are "investing $7.6 million ... which involves a project scope of removing, replacing, and installing new timber block ties and concrete, collecting and disposing general debris, and installing a safety construction barrier on the platform to protect passengers" but transport safety groups have " issued four railroad related safety recommendations in concert with the [NTSB] publication of two railroad accident briefs".

Sounds kind of scary huh?

And it's total bulls***. I wrote this in five minutes using google, a few press releases from major railroads and NTSB, and a letter from one government person to another. The 1" in question is the flange width of every railroad wheel, ever used, in the last century.

1. If I had bothered to call the railroad, they would've told me this is a misunderstanding of their technology and that 1" is normal.
2. If I didn't believe that, I could've walked over to Union Station and found a crew member that might speak off record and tell me I'm nuts, or maybe he/she has an ax to grind and gives me a good story.
3. I'm sure some camera toting foamer is around my local station or on a forum that would tell me what's up.
4. A quick perusal of this document here would show me I'm wrong: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/steam/g1mrawheel.gif

TLDR by repeating a bunch of scary stuff on twitter while sitting half-dressed in my home office looking at my pool, I've come up with something called clickbait that will scare the crap out of people and get play in quite a few outlets. If you don't believe fake news exists and the "mainstream" media isn't full of garbage by now, I can't help you.

Man complains about clickbait by posting clickbait.

Ok boomer.

Braintrust reports moderater to moderater. Ok millenial.


And if you can't understand the significance of this post, I can't help you. It illustrates that "journalism" is not journalism because anybody with an iphone can write a report based on a few unverified sources and press releases, which are known for doing what we call "Controlling the conversation".

Also, I'M NOT A BOOMER. I'm 38.

Oh sorry, I didn't know that moderators didn't have to follow the rules about posts being on-topic/relevant and were allowed to just post clickbaity trash sloppily trying to make some point that not everything you read online is true, a concept that even 4th graders these days understand.

Can you tell me what rule I broke? Also you fell for the sloppy trash which tells us something.

2. Topical Discussions - Amtrak and intercity passenger rail transportation in the United States.

If you are posting for the first time, take a few moments to explore the other topics available at Railroad.net. This forum is reserved for discussion of topics related to Amtrak, and intercity passenger rail service. Discussions which are largely or develop into other topics, such as commuter rail, intra-city rail, freight rail, or any other topic, may be moved to a more appropriate forum - or locked (meaning no further posts).

While you might not be a boomer in age your post has the essence of boomer.

And how is this not a topic related to Amtrak or intercity passenger service?

This is yet another example of how the media is trying to make the railroads look bad thus inderectly encourging readers to use cars instead of the trains so more people can buy Toyotas so that Toyota can run more comercials for their 50% off cars.
I remember a few other examples of the media overexaturating about the railads with metra burning their swithes in the winter (standard procedure), San Francisco using new a light rail as a parts unit, the lights on the LIRR M9 are too darn bright, etc.
#ditchthemedia

The media didn’t say any of this. This was some bored guy at a keyboard trying to make some asinine point.

danib62 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 5:51 pm The media didn’t say any of this. This was some bored guy at a keyboard trying to make some asinine point.

Just in general though, the media also has a bad habit of posting stories like this on social media as well. And there will always be haters against railroads on social media. Just dab on those haters [Sorry]

I was amused by the post, and it does make a good point.

Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:06 pm I was amused by the post, and it does make a good point.

And it seems like a good one too. 12 post within 2 hours means a pretty popular discussion. Probably goes to show how the media is one-sided and doesn't take most of the facts into consideration when writing about the railroads.

Someday when I’m on my deathbed thinking about the time I wasted in my life, the time spent reading this post will be on the top of my list.

Wow am I glad I don't pay for this forum. At least I lost nothing but time.

ADMIN NOTE:

Moved to General Discussion, Passenger Rail.