battalion51
Engineer
One addendum to what tp49 said, the train went of the tracks in Alabama because a barge accidentally slammed into the bridge in heavy fog. FREAK ACCIDENT, not an everyday occurance.
Question about coach seats and lounge....
- Thread starter Breeze
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Something else besides the fact of the heavy fog that I shoud also add is that as a result of that crash I believe there is now a rule (or law) that requires there to be a circuit that if a drawbridge is thrown out of alignment the signals will imediately go to red preventing trains from crossing the damaged bridge at all.
battalion51
Engineer
There was a circuit. When the bridge was struck the rail was intact from what I've been told. The bridge however could not handle the weight of the train with the supports gone, thus causing the accident.
No, the rail was misaligned almost 1/2 an inch from that barge hitting the bridge. That's what threw the Sunset into the drink. If memory serves the problem was that the rails were still in contact, so the track circut was not cut thereby turning the signals red.battalion51 said:
battalion51
Engineer
That's what it was then. I know that in the Crescent City incident the weld between the rails was still there, thus not breaking the circuit. And then of course there's the Sunset accident in AZ with sabotage. That was blatent misalignment.
Ok what is a barge? And isn't that a good thing that the red signals came on? Oh and in the picture I didn't see any signals by the bridge over the Mighty Mississippi. And I thought bridges are suppose to be able to hold the weight of a train...I mean from the picture, the bridge looked like it was made from metal?
battalion51
Engineer
No the circuit WASN'T broken, that's why the accident occured. A barge is a large boat, bout 80-100 feet long something like that. and yes the bridge does usally hold the weight of the train, but since a barge hit the bridge support, and broke it, the bridge didn't perform as it was designed. Signals are also usually only placed every 3-4 miles, so there doesn't have to be a signal on the bridge, although there is usually one right near a drawbridge. By the way the accident we're talking about happened in Alabama, nowhere near the route you'll be on.
Almost all newer train bridges over major rivers are made from just steel. Smaller bridges and some very old large bridges are made from a combination of both steel and concrete.Breeze said:
All bridges however are made to not only carry the weight of the train, they are made to carry at least 20% more than the heaviest train in use. They call this over-engineering, making something stronger than it ever needs to be. That way just in case something does go wrong, most times everything will still be just fine since you have a safety margin.
As for the signals, they wouldn't be right at the bridge. They would be a little way away from the bridge, so that the train stops before it actually gets to the bridge. It takes a train a little longer distance to stop, than it takes to stop your car. So you move the signal further away from the bridge so that just in case the train is going a little too fast to stop at the signal, it still can stop before it gets to the bridge.
As for the case of the Sunset Limited, the problem was that the signals did not turn red. Therefore the engineer didn't know that there was a problem and did not stop the train.
Of course if the tug boat that was pushing the barge had followed the rules, he would have reported the accident and the train could have been stopped in time. By the way a barge is a long, low, flat boat. Typically they haul coal, rocks, dirt, and other things like that.
Breeze, what we're really trying to say is we could all come up with some kind of absolute worst case scenario as to what could happen while traveling via any mode of transportation. The most likely problem you would probably come up with is some kind of minor delay.
As I have now with the latest round of job interviews I've been on surpassed one million air miles I can tell you numerous airline horror stories of emergency landings, poor service, delays, etc. However, with the exception of striking a suicidal person on the tracks and an engine failure that caused a two hour delay and me to spend a little more money in the cafe car, all my Amtrak travels have been incident free, and I've been traveling Amtrak over 1000 miles a month for the last 2.5 years. I also have ridden numerous commuter trains in NY for the past 20+ years also without any incident at all.
As I have now with the latest round of job interviews I've been on surpassed one million air miles I can tell you numerous airline horror stories of emergency landings, poor service, delays, etc. However, with the exception of striking a suicidal person on the tracks and an engine failure that caused a two hour delay and me to spend a little more money in the cafe car, all my Amtrak travels have been incident free, and I've been traveling Amtrak over 1000 miles a month for the last 2.5 years. I also have ridden numerous commuter trains in NY for the past 20+ years also without any incident at all.
Breeze,Breeze said:
Just take a deep breath and relax. You'll be fine. Riding the train is one of the easiest and most relaxing things you can do. In fact, once you get on a get started I think you'll be just fine and end up loving it.
If you can drive on the freeways out in California, then you'll find the train to be relaxing.
AMTRAK-P42
Conductor
Listen to the man, :lol:AlanB said:
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