FTA orders out-of-tolerance wheel gauge reporting, asks for fleet-wide inspection

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-ask ... 021-10-29/

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) said Friday it had asked U.S. transit agencies to conduct inspections of wheel gauges on rail cars following the Oct. 12 derailment of a Washington subway train.

FTA said it was requiring state safety agencies to report out-of-tolerance wheel gauges discovered since October 2020 and advised them to require fleet-wide inspections of wheel gauges in public transportation systems. The Washington subway system said on Thursday it expected to operate sharply reduced service through at least Nov. 15.

FTA says operators must disclose how often they inspect wheel gauges and the number that failed inspections.

Shocking...

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:09 pm https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-ask ... 021-10-29/

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) said Friday it had asked U.S. transit agencies to conduct inspections of wheel gauges on rail cars following the Oct. 12 derailment of a Washington subway train.

FTA said it was requiring state safety agencies to report out-of-tolerance wheel gauges discovered since October 2020 and advised them to require fleet-wide inspections of wheel gauges in public transportation systems. The Washington subway system said on Thursday it expected to operate sharply reduced service through at least Nov. 15.

FTA says operators must disclose how often they inspect wheel gauges and the number that failed inspections.

Shocking...

Even serious model railroaders know the importance of in spec wheel gauge to avoid derailments.

The results if they become public will be interesting. Are FRA regs for commuter RRs and Amtrak next ?

The FRA might order the same for commuter railroads and Amtrak next, but not by the FTA.
FTA has little to no regulating ability over railroads, their regulating powers are limited to transit.

Is wheel gauge something which can be measured automatically by track mounted equipment?

Maybe if you had some laser thingy at a known stress point such as a curve

BandA wrote: ↑Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:57 pm Maybe if you had some laser thingy at a known stress point such as a curve

It certainly could be, but you kind of raise an interesting point, should transit systems have defect detectors in various places?