My train separated

Yesterday afternoon I was on the train and it separated just after Des Plaines.

I'm wondering how exactly that can happen. Is it the result of poor maintenance or something on the track or ... ?

Kudos to the train crew, BTW. I was still less than a half hour late.

Whoa. It actually happened in transit? Just guessing, but perhaps the MU cables weren't tightly connected. Were you riding on the front half of the train, or were you in a car when the lights just went out all of a sudden?

doepack wrote:Whoa. It actually happened in transit? Just guessing, but perhaps the MU cables weren't tightly connected. Were you riding on the front half of the train, or were you in a car when the lights just went out all of a sudden?

Front half. Although there was a point at which the regular lights went off and the emergency lights came on.

Are you saying the train did not actually become physically uncoupled?

Abdul Alhazred wrote:

doepack wrote:Whoa. It actually happened in transit? Just guessing, but perhaps the MU cables weren't tightly connected. Were you riding on the front half of the train, or were you in a car when the lights just went out all of a sudden?

Front half. Although there was a point at which the regular lights went off and the emergency lights came on.

Are you saying the train did not actually become physically uncoupled?

Since I wasn't there, I wouldn't know that for sure, but if the entire train remained coupled together, then I'd guess either problems with the MU cables, or the HEP unit in the locomotive. Actual physical separations are rare, though not unheard of...

Did the brakes apply hard and quick around the same time the lights went out and vice versa (assuming the train was moving at this point)? That may be a sign that the train actually came uncoupled (if the cars separated with enough distance between them, the brake pipe hoses between the cars would have come apart causing an emergency application of the brakes, and the Head End Power cables would have been unplugged forcing the HEP to shut down).

c604. wrote:Did the brakes apply hard and quick around the same time the lights went out and vice versa (assuming the train was moving at this point)? That may be a sign that the train actually came uncoupled (if the cars separated with enough distance between them, the brake pipe hoses between the cars would have come apart causing an emergency application of the brakes, and the Head End Power cables would have been unplugged forcing the HEP to shut down).

Hard to say. The stop was very sudden but we were just barely moving pulling out of Des Plaines.

It would have been a brocken knuckle, perhaps the side bar did not lock the knuckle entirely. If it was coming out of the station it would be difficult to tell if an emergency brake application occurred since there is not a whole lot of air that could potentially be dumped. Regardless, it is not that big of a deal. All one must do it apply a hand brake, replace the knuckle if need be (which surprisingly does not take that long) back the train onto the disconnected car, do a brake test, and off they go.