Runway Trolley - 7/27/23

https://6abc.com/septa-trolley-crash-ru ... /13561872/

A runaway SEPTA trolley crashed into a historic home in Southwest Philadelphia on Thursday night.

"About 40-50 mph. You would think that this was a scene straight out of Will Smith's movie," one person who witnessed the crash said.

Officials said the trolley was out of service when it crashed at about 10:45 p.m. near Island and Woodland avenues. There was a mechanic onboard, but no one was behind the controls at the time, according to SEPTA Chief Operating Officer Scott Sauer.

The trolley was coming from the SEPTA Elmwood Depot, about half a mile away from the home.

Officials said the trolley derailed, struck an SUV, injuring the two people inside, and then slammed into the historic home.

Looks like it was going backwards? Is it possible it rolled down there? Unpowered?

It was a shop car that was getting moved around Elmwood. No power and no brakes, rolled right out of the yard and down Island Rd.

That's in my old neighborhood. A Route 11 car going off duty would take the switch to Island Avenue south, then up to the Elmwood carhouse and turn in there.

A runaway car rolling backwards would pick up speed rapidly as it's all downhill: under the bridge carrying the Amtrak right of way and further downhill toward Darby Creek. If the Blue Bell tavern had not been there the car would have had enough momentum to land into the creek.

Are there any derails in the area of the car barn? Feels like it should have been stopped before it left the gate.

Obviously not. I've yet to see any followup on the incident. It appears the local news media is more focused on five serious accidents in five days rather than a single accident. The NTSB is reportedly involved so we'll eventually find out exactly how this happened. Most likely the going off-shift motorman didn't properly secure the car or the mechanic released something while doing whatever he or she was doing.

BlueRiband wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:57 pm It appears the local news media is more focused on five serious accidents in five days rather than a single accident.

Speaking of which, has there been anything on the 101/102 accident at Lansdowne Ave.? I haven't heard anything on that since the day it occurred.

No update on any of the four previous incidents.

There is a track diagram of the Elmwood Depot by a Mike Szilagui at www.phillytrolley.org: http://www.phillytrolley.org/Elmwood-De ... ck-Map.pdf

The track at the lowest portion of his diagram is the path taken by the runaway car. It appears that a car waiting to go into one of the maintenance bays would be in a position to roll backward toward Island Avenue.

https://www.inquirer.com/transportation ... 30810.html

Interesting ....

JeffK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:21 pm https://www.inquirer.com/transportation ... 30810.html

Interesting ....

From reading the article it doesn't appear anything is specific to Regional Rail. The two references to trains involve BSL and MFL. From a passenger perspective on the RRD side, things seem pretty good. Honestly they feel better than before COVID.

On the RRD Division, safety has been pretty good. I do wish that they would run more trains. On the transit division, I've had to take the bus back home multiple times because the R5 doesn't run frequent enough and the current iteration of bus drivers seem to be very green. Like, driving the bus like it's a sedan level of aggressive driving. I'm not sure if I happened to luck out on the drivers I get who drive on the Schuylkill specifically. SEPTA's Transit division has been suffering from operator shortages ever since COVID and it sure does seem like they are chucking whoever is competent enough not to crash leaving the depot behind the wheel to fill the gaps

Speaking as someone who carries an FRA license, there's a whole lot more i's to dot and t's to cross when running a railroad operation than there is transit. SEPTA wouldn't have been able to get away with being as lax as they have been with safety for as long as they have on the railroad side as they have on the transit side.

More from the Inky: apparently the car's air compressor was being repaired, leaving it without brakes.

https://www.inquirer.com/transportation ... 30821.html

What about the dynamic and track brakes?

According to the NTSB's preliminary report, the air compressor in the car was removed for replacement and there was no tag or other notice to indicate that.
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pag ... FR014.aspx

So does this make 9107 the first K-car officially scrapped?