LIRR DM #511

BuddR32 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 22, 2021 12:34 am

Pensyfan19 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:10 pm , especially since 511 had a Dashing Dan logo on its right cab and was considered an unofficial heritage unit.

Considered by whom?

Considered by me and a few local LIRR railfans because of the Dashing Dan sticker slapped on its side from late 2017 to early 2019.

Just another late 90's poorly maintained piece of junk that got broken and couldn't be fixed. And now LIRR has one less DM which it had too few of the day these went into service, and once the Canonball drunkard specials start this summer things will be even worse. Oh, forgot, they are actually running a before rush hour Port Jeff to Penn direct train now - that needs 2 DM's, no idea where they will get them from. Wonder if they will ever have 2 sort of rush hour EB Penn to PJ direct trains.

Was the 511 that bad, my Dad was LIRR Locomotive Engine who brought me to see Engine #201 and aftermath that happen at Pilgrim on Jan 24, 1971 in the Locomotive Shop in Morris Park in April, 1971. I will never forget this engine, look total, the Shop Crew got it running again, a super team of Railroaders indeed, the 511 must to been a real mess!!.

452 Card, The 511 does not look too bad, perhaps more then I know about the accident.

Regardless of my opinion of LIRR maintenance and design, it is pitiful. And I still don't see how the missed inspection had any connection to this result (if the circuit was bad, the system should have stopped trains from running on that piece of track). As to 511, I think they should have carefully dismantled it, rebuilt the frame, etc. put 511 back together again. They are too short of DM's not to.

There is no frame. All the DE-DMs have a moncooque base section constructed by welding the various assemblies together. Once that section is wracked, just like a modern automobile, it is beyond repair and becomes "Salvage". If the engineers who assessed the damage came to this conclusion, it is the end of the line. Bye Bye. Seeya. Gone. Kaput. Parts Donor.

I understand building a cheap shit car that way, but not an expensive loco! Thanks for the explanation!

(if the circuit was bad, the system should have stopped trains from running on that piece of track)

Contrary to the public narrative, the wreck was not solely caused by a broken rail bond. You are correct. Generally, a broken bond would have dropped the signal.

The inspector is getting blamed for the accident. Should he be prosecuted for falsely signing off on doing the inspection of that cable? Probably. But a whole lot of officials, plus Newsday need to apologize for blaming him for the crash. Though I'm curious where he was, I think in Ronkonkoma, when he was supposedly doing the inspection, and why. That, to me, is worth investigating, and might tell us what's really going on behind the scenes on the Fail Road.

Plus, since this was not the cause, LIRR seems to be getting away with not telling us the real cause of the crash. And that's an even bigger scandal!

You are probably correct on most counts regarding the inspection, Photobug. The true primary and contributory causes have been identified and corrected.

Newsday's findings, published as a factual and scientific account is actually a verbatim reprint of the federal prosecutor's press release, solely intended to secure a criminal conviction. Its correlation to the actual facts is, at best, a single sided dramatization, devoid of significant technical verity.

So what was the actual real cause? And what did it take to correct?

The Long Island "Fail" Road -- as you've dubbed it -- would provide the information if you requested it properly from the Carrier or FRA. For many reasons, we'd rather not go into further findings here with you.

I actually do care about LIRR, but they do frustrate me a great deal. I really liked Helena (who I got to know in person on a number of occasions), I also like our current LIRR president but find him painfully out of touch (though for quite a while I could tell you which car he rode in on my morning train). But LIRR's inability to fix problems - same train stopping give or take 150 feet on my platform every morning? Never depart my station on time in the morning? Only arrived at Penn on time 3 times in many years of riding it? Frequent train breakdowns? No direct Penn to PJ train during evening rush hour IOTW after 5PM? Typical rush hour PM PJ train speed averages what, maybe 30MPH? Have you ever watched Petticoat Junction - their steamer was faster than that. So please pardon my occasional sarcasm.

Somehow I fail to see any reference to the 511 in that last post.