Train 808 Centre Avenue Fire

A flashed shoe fuse holder on Train 808 caused a fire to M-7 equipment and shut down eastward Long Beach service for about 45 minutes east of Centre Avenue.

The response was exactly opposite of that during the Train 1258 fiasco a week ago. The fire department responded first, while the crew moved passengers from the affected car and fought the fire. Then a manager arrived and took control of the scene, followed by the Mechanical Department's Mobile Unit 269, which does emergency troubleshooting during the morning hours.

They isolated the car from the third rail, breaking off the shoes, and sent the train on its way to Long Beach.

The crew, who fought the fire, was covered with smoke and chemical power. The engineer, a former manager, left the ambulance attendants (who recommended that he go to the hospital), to bring the train to Long Beach, knowing that four trains were held behing his.

This shows how a situation is handled by dedicated men who know their jobs.

Clem

Now that's true railroading!

Dave Keller

how are the plastic shoes holding up for the lirr?

That was a good job that crew did with that situation. I'm sure they handled it pretty much the same way we would all handle a traction motor fire or something similar to that. The situation involving train #1258 was still unique in it's self making things much more difficult for the crew to handle. This is not taking anything away from the crew of 808, but dealing with fires on-board are things that I personally feel we are better trained for than trouble shooting major failures. Obviously the manager who showed up at the location also had an idea of what he/she was doing so it limited the amount of delay to the passengers on that train. This is an example of what can be done when everyone works together to do things right. You eliminate problems and delays, and everyone stays safe. excellent job by all.

Must have been one of those days for the RR. There was a train sitting at the platform at Hillside Station this morning, with all sorts of activity going on.

I have had 2 on-board fires, 4 on-board medical emergencies,2 of which were life threatening, 1 assualt, and many mechanical problems, including an engine parting from the train. My crew and I handled all of them professionally and all had a happy ending. Having said that I am not convinced I would have been able to successfully trouble shoot the problem on 1258.
On thing that should be added. Regardless of training, ability increases with experience. The job that covers train 808 is a high senority job and therefore most likely the guys on that train were highly experienced. The job that covers train 1258 is a low senority job, one of the lowest on the RR. Not an excuse , just a point.

The Manager that responded wasn't wearing a MOO -MOO but he had shoes that were too big for him.

Railroading in a bad situation like it ought to be! Things work out right for all when cooler heads prevail. MACTRAXX

Eric (de402),

What do you mean by plastic shoes?

Tom

Clemuel:

Do you know the number of that M-7 and what was the extent of fire damage ?

Say Clem, I'm sure you meant no slap to the fire/ems services, but its inappropriate nowadays to refer to an EMS crew as "ambulance attendants." That term went out many years ago with the upgrading of of Emergency Medical Services that took place in the 1970's. Just as you wouldn't call an engineer a "train driver" or a conductor a "ticket taker". (Chuckle) Some common terms today for ambulance personnel are "EMT's" or paramedics. Inside the service we just call them "techs" for short.

The EMS crew at the scene in East Rockaway apparently followed correct procedure which is to encourage any possibly injured person to go to the hospital to get checked out, the theory being to err on the side of safety for the victim. If the engineer chose to decline, that's his choice to make.

Good to hear that everything went well at this particular incident. Thanks again for your interesting account of these incidents this week

N340SG wrote:Eric (de402),

What do you mean by plastic shoes?

Tom

The M7's have plasic or composite shoe beams instead of wood. I guess they are lower maintainence as you don't need skilled wood workers around. But the fire on DM 503 was caused by some flaw in the composite shoe beam and so the RR hired a (yet another) consultant to solve that problem.

Incidentally, the TA uses composite shoe beams on the R142/142A equipment with success or so it seems.

Head-end,

Whatever you do, never, never call an LIRR Engineer a "Motorman". You will get the cab door slammed in your face.

Tom

Eric de402,

I don't think there's been any inordinate problems with the beams themselves....yet....give them time to get weathered and possibly impregnated with contaminates...we'll see. We did have one M-7 beam fall off due to the bolts on the articulation assembly coming loose and backing out. They are under the round boot at the wheel centers. So, the boot has to be looked under, and the bolts retorqued, on every PI.

The LIRR gives the shoe beams on all it's EMUs a thorough cleaning each 92 day PI, trying to avoid contaminates building up, and tracking over to ground.
This after a rash of shoe beam fires in the past, including the one caught by TV helicopter a couple of years back.
However, wood being wood, you can still get a shoe beam fire if there is excessive arcing going on. If you aim a blowtorch at wood, it will start on fire.
I'm not sure, but I think the M-7 beams may be a wood laminate.....Arrrgh... more homework. The accoutrements look like fiberglass and plastic. But the beams themselves look like laminated wood.

Tom

P.S. The shoe beams come ready to install. There is no woodworking required. All holes are pre-drilled.

Sorry, Head,

If I offended by refering to the ambulance attendant by an old fashioned title. The railroad industry is old and slow to bend with the latest fad. As such, on the Railroad, trainmen are still called trainmen and ambulance attendants are still ambulance attendants. Letters are addressed "Gentlemen," and women are "Mrs." or "Miss".

When you've been around for more than 150 years, change comes slowly. Besides, it would cost too much to change the wording on the accident forms.

C