One more use for a Jeep GC

I think that's the difference between a commuter train and a locomotive. Nick

Not only that but the commuter train was being pushed so the locomotive was in the rear as I hear it.

This idiot was intent on committing suicide but changed his mind at the last minute.

Bill

doesn't take much to derail a train, especially if it is going fast and drives over bits of metal.

Actually, it's the difference in the front of the train and the back. The train was being pushed down the track, and they come off pretty easily when operated this way.

The reason the train derailed so easily was that it was being pushed. If the engine was in the front, and was pulling the train, by all accounts it would have remained on the track The second train was being pulled by its engine, and it did remain on the track, having said that, the last car on the second train did come off the track, indeed it came off the train.

The car of the train that hit the Jeep got pushed sideways by the impact, and since it was being pushed from behind by the locomotive, it left the track. It went to the side where another freight locomotive was parked. When it hit that engine, then the car went completely sideways. In the mean time, due to the schedule, another train was coming from the opposite direction at the same time. As the first train continued down the track, getting worse by the second, it began to rub on the second train. Eventually the fully sideways car of the first train caused the last car of the second train to completely leave the tracks, and become disconnected from its train. After all of that, the parked freight locomotive was tipped over and its fuel spilled out and ignited.

As a result of this accident, there might be a new rule for trains to always be pulled from the front and never pushed from the back. I don't know how this can be accomplished because most commuter trains have no means of turning around. My guess is that they will keep engines on sidings, and pull the train the parked engine, then drive that engine (pointed the opposite direction) to the back of the train, and swap engines. This will efffectively turn the train around without having to put in a turn table. It will require lots of new engines for the commuter train systems.

Well, actually, despite the hype being put out by the media, trains running in push mode manage to hit vehicles and stay on track quite regularly, all around the world.

What happened Wednesday was that the train hit the Jeep, and part of the Jeep which being being dragged along moved points of a rail switch, either directly or by hitting the switch stand, causing the front wheels of the car to head broadside into the UP locomotive. The first and second car jackknifed, landing in the way of the second train.

Note that the Metrolink cars weigh about 50 tons, and are not particularly light. Had a locomotive been up front, and the switch was similarly turned under it, the same thing would have happened, except that there would have been a much greater danger of a diesel fueled fireball of death.

There will no doubt be a lot of public outcry about push-pull running as a result of this disaster. But the mode has been used in Northern California, Chicago and other cities for 40 years or so. Derailments are no more common pushing than pulling.

My sympathy goes out to the families of the victims. My finger goes out to the @$#%@#$%@#$% that caused it.

Regards,

DAve

Jeff Strickland wrote:

The local passenger commuter trains here have engines at both ends, so it always has one engine at the front pulling and the other at the back pushing..

Snow...

The local (or, would be local if Connecticut had train service beyond the $$$ Gold Coast) commuter trains are paired, self-driven electric units. No driver (or whatever the railfans call them) units.

-- "I defer to your plainly more vivid memories of topless women with whips....r" R. H. Draney recalls AFU in the Good Old Days.

Not the local trains here, Southern California. Our trains are either pulled or pushed, depending on which way they are going.