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.
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.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.
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.
