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A Miami-bound Amtrak train appeared to be on the wrong track when it collided with a freight train in South Carolina early Sunday, killing two people and injuring 116, according to authorities.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/amtrak-pass...ry?id=52826058 |
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The obvious superficial reading is that the people in charge of the freight train set the points on the main line to put the freight train on the side track, and then didn't set them back before the Amtrack train went through on the main line (and so got diverted onto the side track and into the freight train).
That leaves a signalling issue - did the Amtrack train have a green signal or did it go through a red? And if there was a green signal, is it because the signalling went wrong somehow (meaning that the freight train operators didn't have time to set the points back correctly, or thought that the signal was red) or because the people who set the points just forgot to set them back? Those two are linked to some extent though, because you'd have hoped that the procedure for doing this would ensure that the signals were set correctly to red when the points were changed, and that the points were set correctly before the signal was changed to allow other trains through. So if it's on the freight operators, there's a possible mechanical error in the signal, or human error in the procedure, or systemic error in the procedure itself... |
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Amtrak train on wrong track in deadly crash; it says freight line controls signals
Amtrak doesn't own the rails in the accident location. CSX does, so the Amtrak train's movements would be under the control of the CSX dispatcher. Three things from the article trouble me: 1) Quote:
2) Quote:
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And 3) Quote:
I was shocked by the arial view of the accident site. I wondered if the passenger train had just one locomotive (the two freight locos were easy to identify, despite the damage. The cab and front truck assembly of P42DC #47 is completely sheared away. And railfans closer to the scene than me tell me that was the second locomotive in the consist. ![]() ~Psihala Last edited by Psihala; 05 February 2018 at 03:28 PM. |
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Chairman Sumwalt said in his press briefing that he saw a padlock on the switch, which would indicate a manual switch (automatic switch machines can be manually switched in case of a failure of the controlling equipment, but one usually has to remove a cover to do it).
On a manual switch, its just a lever attached to a metal stand or, if a tall, metal stand isn't practical for whatever reason, mounted on the end of a tie (or "sleeper" for those in the UK). A padlock goes through a hole drilled in both the stand and the lever and is meant to prevent the switch from being tampered with. During switching operations, the brakeman/conductor will unlock the padlock, 'throw' the switch, wait for the train to enter the side track, and, if its a manual mainline switch, throw the switch back for the main, and then replace and lock the padlock. ~Psihala |
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