Metro Mangers discourage use of brakes to save time

You can't make this crap up if you tried.

According to FTA, as Metro continued to expand and add new rail cars to its fleet in the late-1970s and ‘80s, a culture developed: maintenance needs required train cars to constantly be shifted and moved around and to speed up the process, the agency stored railcars overnight without setting and releasing the handbrakes.

The pattern persists today. FTA says “due to challenges in applying handbrakes, the length of time required to apply them, and the difficulty in confirming their disengagement prior to moving trains under power, supervisors in rail transportation and car maintenance generally discourage use of these safety devices.”

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On 'real' railroads, not securing cars with hand brakes is a quick way to become an ex-railroader.

The rest of the rail industry can handle storing a mile long set of cars without them rolling away. Metro can't park 3 married pairs without bungling it up.

Well, the rest of the rail industry doesn't always get it right. Lac Megantic comes to mind...

"MCL1981"
The rest of the rail industry can handle storing a mile long set of cars without them rolling away. Metro can't park 3 married pairs without bungling it up.

WMATA has had fewer incidents where one piece of equipment parked in one of the yards rolled into another then you might think.

All of the single ended tracks are graded in the direction of the bumper posts. All of the yard leads are graded up hill to the mainline. All of the storage tracks with ladders at both end are graded down hill to the center. The shop track are level, so one would have to push a piece of equipment to get it rolling. All of that was done as an additional level of redundancy to keep equipment from rolling unattended through closed turnouts.

As to not setting retainers on maintenance of way equipment standing on the mainline, there is no excuse for that.

Sand Box John wrote:WMATA has had fewer incidents where one piece of equipment parked in one of the yards rolled into another then you might think.

It's not how many I think they've had. It's published information in a scathing FRA report. And apparently that number is more than the powers that be think there should be. The fact that management actively discourages the use of required safety equipment is major point here though.

Sand Box John wrote:"MCL1981"
The rest of the rail industry can handle storing a mile long set of cars without them rolling away. Metro can't park 3 married pairs without bungling it up.

WMATA has had fewer incidents where one piece of equipment parked in one of the yards rolled into another then you might think.

Any is too many - railroad or WMATA!

Anyone recall the one in Chicago a few years ago where a whole CTA train got away a as and was running during rush hour as a ghost train? - I can't remember if somehow it was under power or just going downhill - but it made it through a few stations at least I call before it stopped. I forget the details on how it got away and how they finally stopped it. Anyone have the link to that report?

That train was under power. The operator had used the radio microphone wire to tie the deadman down and the stick pushed forward to go. He was stopped at a faulty signal. He got out of the train to activate the external bypass switch, forgetting he had the throttle jerryrigged. So as soon as he flipped the switch, the train took off without him.

That sounds like the exact same scenario that happened on the MBTA Red Line just recently.

Oh, nevermind. That's what I was thinking of.