Amtrak train loses locomotive

I hear that an Amtrak train lost it's motor near Philly on Sunday while traveling at about 100 mph. Must've been an interesting ride.

Have they found it yet? Maybe somebody put it in the lost and found box at one of the terminals.

...they usually have name tags.

Actually, as most folks on this discussion board know, a separation at speed will immediately produce an emergency application of the air brakes, bringing both loco and train to a stop in pretty short order.

I was eastbound on the "Broadway Ltd" in 1992 when we had a separation at speed between the baggage car and the rest of the train. I was thrown against the front wall of my slumbercoach room by the deceleration, but wasn't hurt. We came to a very hasty stop. Time passed, the locos and baggage car returned to the train, the crew got everything coupled up, and we went.

Not a *real* big deal, although an emergency stop can toss people and luggage around.

Amtrak has already had it put its picture on milk cartons.

Was it a parting? Or by loosing the motor did he mean it died?

trwiz- so... what else ya got? A day? A time? A link to a news story? Details, please.

-otto-

Although brake pipe and main reservoir air line hoses usually separate cleanly during an accidental/undesired uncoupling, the same can not be said for HEP jumper cables. The receptacles for HEP jumper cables point downward and outward on a passenger car; most of the hinged red covers for the receptacles have a retaining notch which is used to help retain the plug when it is inserted into the receptacle. A breakaway is more likely to damage the HEP trainline. In addition, you have to hope the decelostats are working properly so that an undesired emergency brake application at speed does not result in flat spots on the wheels.

trwiz wrote:I hear that an Amtrak train lost it's motor near Philly on Sunday while traveling at about 100 mph. Must've been an interesting ride.

That happens from time to time on my HO-scale railroad. Damn couplers!

Maybe this is a dumb question, but if both segments of the broken train immediately go into emergency, how do they ensure avoiding a collision between the two due to varying deceleration rates?

I *believe* that the lighter weight (and therefore less momentum) of each trailing car, relative to the locomotive, means that the brakes (which are essentially the same on each trailing cars and the locomotive) would slow the trailing cars down faster than they slow the locomotive down.

If the locomotive was in "push" mode there might be a problem with the loco ramming the cars after the cars go into emergency braking after disconnecting, I suppose.

Hehehehe If the train's in push mode and splits apart, you've got bigger issues to worry about

From railfan gossip:
About 1950, a Long Island Diesel arrived at Jamaca, N.Y. without its passenger train, and the engine crew hadn't noticed anything wrong. When the train broke apart, the train line air hose on the back of the loco flew about, folded itself in half, and got stuck that way on some part of the back of the engine. This way, the brakes on the engine didn't apply. There must not have been a working communicating whistle, because breaking that hose line usually causes the whistle to blow continuously, meaning "look back for signals".
There have been wrecks where a combination of up and down grades let the rear of a parted train collide with the front.

This is always a pet peeve of mine in movies.

Seriously though, what does "lost" mean in this case? Since I haven't heard anything on the news, I'm going to assume lost probably means power.

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