503 RIP

Someone asked to see what 503 looks like..here ya go 4/2/08

Which incident is 503 linked with?

Electrical fire at Huntington a few years ago.

RetiredLIRRConductor wrote:Electrical fire at Huntington a few years ago.

If I remember correctly, it occoured on December 12, 2000 while running train 660 to PJ. I think it hit a shopping cart and then fire. I remember seeing a video on tv of the engine smoking in the station. It was only a couple weeks old then...


lirr415-Peter

peter's correct. Hit a hobo's shopping car which started an electrical fire. Such a shame.

Pretty sad that the old FA-Powerpack is more useful than a unit with less than 20K miles on it?

How in the world does hitting a mere shopping cart start an electrical fire? Trains hit cars/trucks everyday with (usually) no more damage than some crumpling and scrapes.

A trird rail powered Dual mode, when it shorts out is like having a 5000 amp 700 volt welder, not much that that won't melt.

as you can see from the damage the cart probably got stuck on the front right wheels, where the 3rd rail is. The huge electrical arks caused things to ignite. Same reasoning behind the dangers of the large 3rd rail gaps around Jamaica and why the DM30's run in diesel mode all the time.

A bit off the topic, but I noticed that the wheels of the DM30 looks huge. It is a deception from the photos or are the wheels actually larger when compared with other motive equipment?

Look about the same size as the ones on the MP15s there, they're just not as covered by the rest of the truck on the bottom portion of the wheel

You are correct, they are bigger....44 inch vs. 40 inch

Kro52

So much for standardization.

Jay