Another derailment... Jamaica 11/23

Track 8 saw some eastbound service as well. While peeking over the end of the platform, there were a few trains that came on that track; one was Ronkonkoma-bound.

edit: woops, I don't know my directions; changed westbound to eastbound

It's sad that Metro-North crews would scab against fellow LIRR union members just to make a few bucks. Whatever happened to union solidarity?

It really isn't scabbing, as the Metro North wreck crew could not do much without its Long Island brothers. It's not too unusual for Metro North to assist in these situations.

Believe me, if there was any sentiment in the field that Long Island workers were being "put out" or had their earnings reduced by the Metro North crew, they would not have worked. These type of matters are handled on the field level and there is a strong understand between field workers in this industry and many others of how this carries on.

the media is making a big deal of this event. ABC 7 is showing a program about the safety of lirr and will be talking to so called "experts" and their opinions of the railroads infustructure and operations.

And I expect their experts to report on how incredibly safe railroads are, and how few and far between major problems are.

Yeah, and I'm POSITIVE the media and 'experts' will report that there hasn't been a major accident (with fatalities) on the LIRR since the 1950s.

It's unfortunate that the LIRR is among the nation's most deadly railroad to its employees. Employee fatalities are not considered "lost time accidents" and many reports conveniently exclude them.

I suppose the investigative reporting will only draw from one source, the LIRR, which will fail to mention the half dozen employees killed at work during the past several years.

Any updates of the investigation?

The Long Island Rail Road's upper management brought in an outside consultant to find the cause of this derailment. Some viewed this action as a confirmation of the president's contempt for her own employees, others felt the last qualified investigator on the property retired years ago.

The finding was called a "classic low speed derailment". The train had four dead cars in the middle causing unusual slack and buff action. Contributing further was the M-7's feature which increases propulsion power of the remaining cars when some of the consist is dead.

The engineer, feeling a power loss in an area with long gaps notches the controller for more power. This caused excessive slack and buff action which caused the train to either pick or walk off the switch.

Contributing to the cause was excessive Sandite in the switch points, and a lack of lubrication as the flange greasers (grease pots) were foolishly and dangerously disabled in compliance with President William's orders due to system wide slip slide conditions.

The M-7 equipment also has notoriously tight trucks which, as A-23 can tell you, can also have contributed to the derailment.

I suppose now President Williams will have to find another consultant to tell her how this can be avoided in the future.

I noticed that about the M-7's before I retired.
If you went across a big interlocking you would notice a few big "Kicks" as the cars with power would bunch up with the cars off the 3rd rail. It could be very rough sometimes
It was always very noticeable crossing over from valley stream station to the west hempstead branch, going east.
A few Engineers I worked with prided themselves on being able to bring the train across the plant without causing the kicks..not an easy thing to do.
One guy who was very good at it was Steve G.
Always ran a very smooth train.

She is a fool. Waiting to see who she blames for her mistake.

How about getting 73 switch back at Jay?

Thanks for that explanation, Tool. That bucking action in the gaps can be downright scary, even to an ordinary passenger like me! Always wondered if some harm wasn't being done, but never imagined anything like what happened.

The bus matron will probably blame the engineer for causing the buffer action.

RetiredLIRRConductor wrote:I noticed that about the M-7's before I retired.
If you went across a big interlocking you would notice a few big "Kicks" as the cars with power would bunch up with the cars off the 3rd rail. It could be very rough sometimes
It was always very noticeable crossing over from valley stream station to the west hempstead branch, going east.
A few Engineers I worked with prided themselves on being able to bring the train across the plant without causing the kicks..not an easy thing to do.
One guy who was very good at it was Steve G.
Always ran a very smooth train.

But isn't Valley interlocking a rough riding interlocking? Although it is not the worst on the Babylon line, that would be Rocky interlocking east of Rockville Centre.