Palmetto - Train 89 Incident

ebtmikado wrote:The same type of comments as last spring.
The NTSB will investigate and scrutinize every aspect of it, then we will eventually
learn the real cause.
Why do we always have to have all the speculation?

Lee

Because they take way too long to tell us what happened. It's been almost a year since last May's crash and they still haven't told us what they've known for months. It doesn't take that long to figure it out.

DutchRailnut wrote:train and backhoe were not on same track , so lets not further speculate ??

Who said that? I highly doubt they were on separate tracks looking at the front of the locomotive.

you are probably right originally it looked like they were just fouling 3, track 4 was out of service but according ABC7 news NY they probably put the backhoe on track 3 (active track) no link to story yet .
Let's try again. Track 2 was oos for a 55 hour work outage. Saturday night the track dept took 3 out to facilitate fouling moves. Shortly before 89 came thru area, track foreman reported clear and track 3 was OK for service and the rest is history. Track 4 was never out of service.

Okay I'm gonna take this time to express my frustration with the media's ignorance when it comes to anything railroad related. During this last briefing, one of the reporters asked if the tracks that 89 was travelling on belonged to Amtrak. Funny how when it comes to asinine matters like the Kardashians or the Jenners they know everything, but when it comes to anything rail-related, nothing.

Rant over.

Let's remember, whoever is at fault, sometimes people just make mistakes. There is still a long way to go.

NTSB news briefing today at 5:30pm

Work equipment on adjacent track with equipment (backhoe) on same track as 89. Train speed 108mph prior to impact, emergency stop started 8 seconds prior to impact

I can't even imagine what goes through an engineer's mind during those 8 seconds. Your mind must race through so many thoughts, scenarios, whether you should you do anything else, should you say something to the conductor/dispatcher, etc. I imagine ultimately you're just along for the ride in silent, motionless shock.

maybe same sory but :
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/investigat ... 8806851533" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BostonUrbEx wrote:I can't even imagine what goes through an engineer's mind during those 8 seconds. Your mind must race through so many thoughts, scenarios, whether you should you do anything else, should you say something to the conductor/dispatcher, etc. I imagine ultimately you're just along for the ride in silent, motionless shock.

If I understand correctly, an immediate radio call would have been appropriate. 8 seconds is enough time to wait helplessly for impact. 8 seconds at 108 MPH.

Either the last words before impact were Emergency Emergency Emergency on the radio or something said in the cab that is impolite to post. I doubt there was silence.

Brandon4500 wrote:Okay I'm gonna take this time to express my frustration with the media's ignorance when it comes to anything railroad related. During this last briefing, one of the reporters asked if the tracks that 89 was travelling on belonged to Amtrak. Funny how when it comes to asinine matters like the Kardashians or the Jenners they know everything, but when it comes to anything rail-related, nothing.

Yup.

I keep this in mind when I am listening to all the other news stories.

justalurker66 wrote:

BostonUrbEx wrote:I can't even imagine what goes through an engineer's mind during those 8 seconds. Your mind must race through so many thoughts, scenarios, whether you should you do anything else, should you say something to the conductor/dispatcher, etc. I imagine ultimately you're just along for the ride in silent, motionless shock.

If I understand correctly, an immediate radio call would have been appropriate. 8 seconds is enough time to wait helplessly for impact. 8 seconds at 108 MPH.

Either the last words before impact were Emergency Emergency Emergency on the radio or something said in the cab that is impolite to post. I doubt there was silence.

It's not just those 8 seconds. It can be the lifetime afterwards. Despite it so far being pretty clear the engineer did nothing wrong, there's going to be some emotional fallout.

Brandon4500 wrote:Okay I'm gonna take this time to express my frustration with the media's ignorance when it comes to anything railroad related...

Yes that's frustrating, but pales in comparison to Fox News writers who cannot even spell "brake" !?!

... It was like somebody in a car hitting the breaks, easing up and then hitting the breaks, but in a matter of seconds....

bluedash2 wrote:

ebtmikado wrote:The same type of comments as last spring.
The NTSB will investigate and scrutinize every aspect of it, then we will eventually
learn the real cause.
Why do we always have to have all the speculation?

Lee

Because they take way too long to tell us what happened. It's been almost a year since last May's crash and they still haven't told us what they've known for months. It doesn't take that long to figure it out.

And what expertise do you have in accident investigation to support that statement?

Went through the area southbound on SEPTA on the local track at about 715pm EDT. Repairs look almost complete. MoW equipment was stored in a siding on the southeast side of the tracks just north of HOOK; perhaps they moved out of the way for the evening rush. The catenary on the southbound express track is still grounded in the accident area, but there was no equipment on that track, and the other three tracks seemed to be open.

I'd guess they complete track repairs overnight or early tomorrow. No cat poles, wires, signals or other equipment appeared to be damaged, and the dragging equipment detectors approaching HOOK weren't touched in the accident so much quicker to recover from than the NE Philly accident last spring.

The Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out another MoW incident in the same area in 1988. I didn't know about it, but here's an article from back then: http://articles.philly.com/1988-04-28/n ... -equipment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Above all, condolences to the MOW workers' families and speedy recovery to the engineer and passengers.

As an Amtrak customer that day heading west on the Pennsylvanian, I was frustrated that Amtrak's website for alerts and service disruptions didn't have anything about the incident at 10AM. Nor did Julie. I checked online status, and it showed 43 as on-time out of Philly, but seeing Amtrak's Twitter feed saying that *all* NEC service was suspended made me call and wait over 30 mins for a live agent to confirm. (We did leave more or less on time.) Surprised that the top story on the Alerts page at that time of the morning was an announcement about pets being permitted on board. My wife was checking Action News' website and told me about the accident. So that brings me to 6ABC.com - their site continues to mix pictures of 188 last May in amongst this story. C'mon, Action News, I expect better from you.