Hurricane Sandy

[farecard]

but these cables were not ment to be submerged...

"These" meaning? Again, I propose:

a) Park pumper car on closest trackage with 3rd rail working.

b) Deploy a wheeled sled down into the water. Sled has large volume, low head pump, either submersible electric motor, or less efficient, air powered one.

c) Hose back to pumper is filled by above; with pumper keeping the head down to a few PSI.

d) Pumper pushes water to wherever it's going; up the track to a working drain, or to the street via a shaft, whatever.

I'd likely put a crawler motor on the sled as well, with long control cable; so crew can deploy it down the track without wet feet.

Of course, this assume NYCTA has "tiebreakers" or equivalent so the submerged sections of third rail can be isolated.

[Backshophoss]

NYCTA has an proven system with the pump trains for years,this storm created the biggest mess to recover from.
Power supply (Con Ed)is returning in stages. The process will take time.


This is way out of the box,but could NYFD's fire boats assist by attaching suction lines to the pump intake,
they have a supersized GPH thru put.

[ctclark1]

but there exist safe ways of doing this.

There is no safe way of energizing the third rail in salt water. Ignoring the risk to the manpower working down there moving your big suction hose around, (which is something that should never be ignored) if the energized portion goes into the submerged section, especially with salt water which is even more conductive than fresh water, you would no doubt almost immediately short out to the return path rails and blow fuses or worse. We're not talking insulated wires and watertight enclosures around lights, you're talking about bare metal in salt water conducting to bare metal.

[njtmnrrbuff]

Will there be any chances of the SIR running on Saturday? Thanks.

[internaut]

When the Pragues subway was flooded a couple of years ago, it took 6 months and more to fully restore traffic. I doubt that it is possible to restore any line within a few days...

[octr202]

News as of late Tuesday/early Wednesday:

http://transportationnation.org/2012/10 ... tion-ever/

And video of South Ferry doing it's impression of Boston's Kenmore Station in 1996:

http://transportationnation.org/2012/10 ... ost-sandy/

[jbvb]

The physical/engineering reason the pump trains submerge the cars is this: Hose that won't collapse under significant suction is *heavy* and inflexible, a lot like a pipe of the same diameter. Once you've got the water pressurized by the pump, you can use much lighter hose. But it still needs to be supported, and it will kick like a fury when the pump is turned on or off.

[lirr42]

South Ferry:












(Photos credit: MTA Flickr)

[lirr42]

South Ferry:
...[12 really, really, really, really bad photos of South Ferry]...
(Photos credit: MTA Flickr)

I guess we won't be seeing trains down there anytime soon...

[lirr42]

The MTA uploaded a video onto it's YouTube Channel Wednesday showing some of the flooding and damage to South Ferry/Whitehall St station:

You can view the video here: MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - South Ferry and Whitehall St Station Damage

[lirr42]

A look at the East River Tunnels, as posted in the LIRR forum:

The MTA uploaded 2 videos onto its YouTube Channel Wednesday showing inside camera footage from the East River Tunnels:

You can view the video here: MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - LIRR East River Tunnel (1 of 2)
You can view the video here: MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - LIRR East River Tunnel (2 of 2)

[lirr42]

Far Rockaway:
(NB: according to the Flickr pages, it says these are LIRR tracks, but they look a lot like NYCT tracks to me)















(Photos credit: MTA Flickr)

[Kamen Rider]

but these cables were not ment to be submerged...

"These" meaning? Again, I propose:

a) Park pumper car on closest trackage with 3rd rail working.

b) Deploy a wheeled sled down into the water. Sled has large volume, low head pump, either submersible electric motor, or less efficient, air powered one.

c) Hose back to pumper is filled by above; with pumper keeping the head down to a few PSI.

d) Pumper pushes water to wherever it's going; up the track to a working drain, or to the street via a shaft, whatever.

I'd likely put a crawler motor on the sled as well, with long control cable; so crew can deploy it down the track without wet feet.

Of course, this assume NYCTA has "tiebreakers" or equivalent so the submerged sections of third rail can be isolated.

"these cables" meaning the power feed cables. they're not water proof. they were never meant to be submerged. Salt water gets in there they are useless. your pump car with energized third rail would need to be parked about a mile away.

Please stop pretending you know better than the largest public transit provider in the western hemisphere.

[farecard]

but there exist safe ways of doing this.

There is no safe way of energizing the third rail in salt water.

I'm not talking about doing so. Again, isolate the flooded sections. Draw power from an unflooded part of the third rail.
(Does NYCTA have "tie breakers" as WMATA does, to do just that?)

[Kamen Rider]

the sections that have power are too far away from the flooded section. please stop using Metro as your basis for suggesting things for the MTA.

not switching the third rail on and useing a diesel is a million times safer. there is no risk for leaking current