GandyDancer wrote:Veering wildly back on topic for just a moment...
Just how effective are the trackside detectors in catching overheating on inboard bearings? It would seem that they would need to be placed in the trackbed looking upwards to get a clear shot at the bearing. Side-scanning might only catch a serious overheat, which would likely be too late to prevent serious damage.
Well, I can't directly answer your question- because I don't know. But, I can give you an example. Last summer, about a week after the infamous derailment at Secaucus, there was an Arrow NEC train that set off a hotbox alarm around Edison IIRC. When they stopped the trains to check it out, they found a wheel that was so hot that they couldn't use their templestick to check it out. Needless to say, this hotbox prevented another derailment of the same type. Following that, ALL Arrow IIIs were immediately removed from service as they figured out what the problem was so they could check out and inspect all the MUs. I believe a decent amount of them had the same problem. Luckily, the 48-hour round the clock inspection occured on a weekend so it didn't seriously affect service. All I know is that it was very enjoyable for me. We had diesels, ALPs and Comets on the Gladstone (inlcuding the 9 car Gladstone Midtown train working on a Hoboken train with two cars open) and on the NEC, they used all push pulls. So, here is one example of a successful hotbox story.
