R179 Procurement Delivery and Acceptance

G/T and Everyone:

Interesting news about this R179 drawbar pull-apart on the A Train at Chambers Street...

The one posted picture of car #3292 shows the detective drawbar assembly well...
On the bar end there looks to be a hole for a pin or fastener - could this have been a
cotter pin that broke or came loose causing the pictured pull-apart?

The R179 cars are in 5 car sets - are they in a A-B-B-B-A configuration?
Was the car that was coupled with this drawbar #3293?
What was the five consecutive car numbers of the defective set?

This is a potentially serious problem that needs to be corrected...
Thankfully this incident occurred on the overnight at a time of low
ridership and not during a busier period...MACTRAXX

Seems like the R-179 has become the new R-46 of the 21st Century. Ya' have to wonder what the heck happened to Bombardier as a company. Almost twenty years ago, they did a good job building the reasonably trouble-free fleet of 836 LIRR cars. Somehow, more recently they lost their way. I wonder if it was maybe caused by a lot of retirements of their skilled tradesmen, like welders, etc.