MBTA commuter train accident at Canton 3/25/08

Does MBTA equipment actually travel at 100MPH? The wheels are so loud going through woburn at 79mph, I can't imagine how loud they'd be at 100.

l008com wrote:Does MBTA equipment actually travel at 100MPH? The wheels are so loud going through woburn at 79mph, I can't imagine how loud they'd be at 100.

the passenger cars are limited to 80 mph

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:

StevieC48 wrote:They were saying the train was stopped for a red signal, which was caused by the car comming towards it. So what would the big deal be if it was an ACELA it would have gotten the same signal too.

the most favorable signal that the engineer could have been running on would have been a Approach Limited, Proceed approaching the next signal at Limited Speed (45 MPH), so the engineer would have been doing far less than the allowed 80 mph

a train going 50mph is easier to stop than a train doing 125 mph. Acela would have had a clear signal until it dropped to STOP and it takes a great distance to stop at that speed

Well and also, the engineer would start braking soon, cause he would have to make a stop at Canton Junction and Cross Over

Pretty scary that such a thing can happen! Don't they normally set the derail devices on sidings? Thank God this didn't happen to an Acela running at 150 mph!

I know, although the Acela's as dbperry said are restricted to 130 and MBTA trains cannot exceed 79 at anytime. And good thing that runaway freight car did not hit any automobiles on busy Washington St, at Canton Center either, unless the runaway lumber carrier most likely activated the bells ang gate at the Canton Center/Washington St Crossing.

That would have been a strange sight for the people stoped at the crossing: the gates going down, the lights flashing, then a single unpowered freight car going by.

Coverage in this morning's papers:

Boston Globe:
Freight car rams commuter train, injuring 150
Audio of press conference

Boston Herald:
Horrible: 150 injured in Canton train crash
Photo gallery

ON the 11 PM news on WBZ TV they reportedly had an employee from the lumber yard (they called it a frieght yard) on and he reported that CSX had been in the yard at NOON and left the car there. at apox 5 pm or shortly after they say the car rolling down the siding and attempted to stop it but it was gone before they could.

It seems to me that either someone forgot to set a brake, or it was tampered with , or it was broken.

I would also think with a yard on a downward slop like this one is reported to have there would be a derail.....


Just my thoughts.

Bill <<< former VRR Steam Fireman

At least modern technology and an alert engineer were able to keep the accident less severe than it could have been.

From the Globe article:

The MBTA train was able to stop before impact with the freight car and avoid derailing because of a signal on the tracks, tripped off by the runaway car, that sent a warning to the engineer's cabin in the form of a white light, Pesaturo said.

Let's hold off on the usual CSX bashing until we have more details from credible sources.

In that photo gallery, I was a little bit dissapointed when I only saw one picture of the locomotive damaged, I would figure that there would be like 5 or something, but its just pictures of people

after this accident, expect to see all sidings have derails up and in place, im still suprised that this siding did not have one set up

One question i thought about while sitting in class was why doesn't the Middleboro Secondary have a derail on it, but the Framingham Secondary does? hopefully, we'll see a derail put on the Middleboro branch shortly

acela 2036 wrote:In that photo gallery, I was a little bit dissapointed when I only saw one picture of the locomotive damaged, I would figure that there would be like 5 or something, but its just pictures of people

I don't think the news really cares about the locomotive more so the people that were injured.

AEM7AC920 wrote:

acela 2036 wrote:In that photo gallery, I was a little bit dissapointed when I only saw one picture of the locomotive damaged, I would figure that there would be like 5 or something, but its just pictures of people

I don't think the news really cares about the locomotive more so the people that were injured.

Yeah I understand that the people that are injured are more important, because they cant be replaced if they died, a locomotive can be. H\e Im just saying, that I was a lil dissapointed that they only had ONE shot of the locomotive

Coverage on the local Canton newspaper's website:

'It hit us; the lights went out': Dozens injured in Canton train crash
150 passengers injured after commuter rail train collision

boatsmate wrote:ON the 11 PM news on WBZ TV they reportedly had an employee from the lumber yard (they called it a frieght yard) on and he reported that CSX had been in the yard at NOON and left the car there. at apox 5 pm or shortly after they say the car rolling down the siding and attempted to stop it but it was gone before they could.

It seems to me that either someone forgot to set a brake, or it was tampered with , or it was broken.

I would also think with a yard on a downward slop like this one is reported to have there would be a derail.....


Just my thoughts.

Bill <<< former VRR Steam Fireman

Both of the 2 lumber receivers' sidings on the Stoughton branch are equipped with derails.