AlanB said:
Amfleet said:
South Station, Washington DC, and other stub end stations have giant bumper posts that I would think literally crush a train if it were to ram into it at 60mph. That would be somethin else.
Those bumper posts are only designed for a train going maybe 10 to 15 mph. A train going 60 wouldn't even blink at those posts. It will take the concrete platforms and station walls to stop a train going that fast.
Yes, a bumping post is no match for a train. Neither are concrete platforms or station walls. No better proof of that than Washington, DC.
On January 15, 1953, PRR #173, “The Federal”, approached Washington Union Station on stub-end Track 16. As the engineer applied the brakes a strange thing happened. Nothing. A break failure caused by a valve in the third car of the train resulted in the train hitting the steel bumping post at an estimated 35 to 40 mph. The result was that the bumping post was demolished and the train crashed into Union Station. The GG1 locomotive and two passenger cars ended up inside the station concourse (not unlike that Amroad train in the Silver Streak). Train station structures of that era were very strong, but no floor was designed to hold a locomotive. The GG1 broke through the floor of the passenger concourse and dropped into the basement baggage handling area of the station. 87 injuries resulted to persons on the train, and in the station, but miraculously, no fatalities.
Ironically, the accident occurred on Thursday, January 15. The next Tuesday, January 20 was the scheduled inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower to his first term as President. Just five days before one of the biggest events in DC, and with thousands of dignitaries and VIP’s due to arrive by train, the PRR had a nasty hole in the floor of Union Station and one of its locomotives sitting in the basement.
Ever ingenious, the PRR came up with a neat solution. They very quickly removed the passenger cars from the station, built a temporary floor over the carcass of the GG1, patched the gaping hole in the wall, and had the station ready to receive visitors on the big day. Many of those who passed through the station had no idea there was a locomotive sitting right under the floor. After the festivities were over, the PRR went back in, pulled out the GG1, and made permanent repairs to the station. The locomotive, #4876, was repaired by the PRR and was returned to service. It was surely the only locomotive on any road that spent a couple of weeks of its life sitting in a station basement.