Another derailment... Jamaica 11/23

Yep, it's inaccurate for the Railroad to say 200 men worked around the clock to rerail that train. The only ones working around the clock were the unpaid managers who provided information to customers and watched the wreck with their hands in their pockets.

Wisest Tool, If I may return to the thread...do you think that when the iron is back..hmmm..those "stiff" trucks on the M7's may not be willing to cooperate

Can we please stick close to the topic of the derailment?

-otto-

Not that I trust Ad-day (Newsday) but does anyone know why they had to use a torch to uncouple the last pair of M7s?

Not that I trust Ad-day (Newsday) but does anyone know why they had to use a torch to uncouple the last pair of M7s?

The couplings were probably too far shot to save, and would make it easier to separate in order to rerail. Stuff like that can be replaced/repaired in a shop.

Jay

Ah yes, my friendly Unit of A-23... It may indeed be an old problem rearing its ugly head once again. We both know that track is oh-so-good and we also know of the M-7's rigidity problems....

I'm not sure which coupler they cut, but the drawbars between the married pairs are often cut as it's easier than trying to take them apart with wrenches.

The regular couplers simply won't uncouple if there are abnormal side or torsional pressures on them, and remember that once they are unlocked, they still have to be dragged apart. Cutting them is an easier route. It only takes five minutes to cut them, and with the extensive repair bill, the added 20 grand for a coupler that's probably twisted anyway doesn't matter.

Nearly 72 hours later...

All service has been restored, JIT for Thanksgiving extras!

LongIslandTool wrote:Ah yes, my friendly Unit of A-23... It may indeed be an old problem rearing its ugly head once again. We both know that track is oh-so-good and we also know of the M-7's rigidity problems....

I'm not sure which coupler they cut, but the drawbars between the married pairs are often cut as it's easier than trying to take them apart with wrenches.

The regular couplers simply won't uncouple if there are abnormal side or torsional pressures on them, and remember that once they are unlocked, they still have to be dragged apart. Cutting them is an easier route. It only takes five minutes to cut them, and with the extensive repair bill, the added 20 grand for a coupler that's probably twisted anyway doesn't matter.

According to the Ad-day diagram, it was the drawbar between the 2 cars in the last pair.

Everyone: From looking at the pictures and news reports of this mishap it looks to me like either those M7s picked a switch or that mentioned computer-controlled system threw a switch under that train causing car 7267 to jacknife the way that it did. It messed up service thru Jamaica big time by blocking tracks 4-5-6-7 especially for eastbound travel.

Getting the cars re-railed and the track damage fixed up took three days which surprised me. I hope that no employees get in any kind of trouble over this-especially if it turns out NOT to be human error which I and others here suspect.
I wonder if those damaged cars will be serviced at the Bombardier facility in LIC or will the LIRR Hillside shops get them fixed up and back in service? MACTRAXX

I have been wondering myself where the damaged cars will be fixed. Does anyone know exactly which cars were damaged, besides 7267 and 7268, and how many/badly the damage was?

I’m surprised that there are not more pictures of this here. I figured every buff that had a camera would be in Jamaica clicking away.

It would have been hard to get photos, as there were MTA police on the west end of track 4 thru 8, and they had that infamous yellow police tape up across the west end of the platform, so no one could get close. Even us employees were chased, and not too politely either.

There is also a heightened security alert this holiday weekend, as there has been information of a possible terrorist attack against a public transportation system. Of course, the ones in the New York metropolitan area would top the list.

Jay

My friend was on the train that derailed, he took some pictures.

MACTRAXX wrote:It messed up service thru Jamaica big time by blocking tracks 4-5-6-7 especially for eastbound travel.

I was out in Jamaica on Monday. They were using tracks 1&2 for westbound service, and 3&4 for eastbound service. As far as I remember, this is the 1st time in a long time that Track 3 has been used for eastbound service.