Just how does an angle cock "self close"?

I would have thought that it would ordinarily take some degree of force to move the valve, especially in the final motion towards closed. And if the valve was somehow so worn out and so loose that moving it was super easy, I would have thought it would then leak like sieve at best, and at worst vibrate somewhere out from fully closed towards the middle.

And wasn't there a case a few years back where closed angle cocks were said to be the cause of a run-away up on Cahon Pass. As I recall, the idea of self closing angle cocks was quickly dismissed, even though at least one was found closed. Also there was some talk that the lack of a manned caboose contributed because the air could not be dumped from the rear. Deliberate sabotage was blamed instead. Armed guards have been out there ever since.




As to whether or not the cab-car event recorder would supply additional useful data, I was going on the presumption (can't remember for sure) that some sort of ATC/ACS was in use on the old Railroad (Lackawanna I think) and that it might still be in use. If so, then the cab signal from the track would be recorded there, but not at the pushing engine. Just another piece of evidence - the more the better.




As to NJT making no real effort to get ready for PTS, that surprises me not at all; given that the morons in Congress that passed this PTS mandate, paid utterly no attention to a myriad of other realities and unintended consequences, not just ignoring the marginal nature of the intended PTS technology itself.

Many publicly owned and funded transit agencies are in a similar boat. Especially those who are organized as special service government districts or are under a state's municipality laws. They are limited by law in what they can do, by whatever sovereign appropriations are made or not made by the applicable legislative body. The same applies to any grant money - from any source. If the project appropriation or grant does not pass, no money can legally be spent on it - at all.

But the enormous capital cost of PTS has to come from somewhere, if it is to be done at all. While Congress has the authority to regulate commerce, and can thus impose its unfunded will on any commercial corporation; imposing such an unfunded mandate on a state, or other entity with its own sovereign legislature, becomes very problematic. Any attempt to force a state legislature to appropriate any amount of money to any particular purpose, is certain to land in the Supreme Court, and then is very likely to be declared unconstitutional.

It is also possible that in New Jersey, they think any existing ATC/ACS they have is adequate as is. It isn't - not quite - not yet anyway. But it already has been upgraded and made compliant with the PTS law in another state. Maybe they are banking on that relatively simple and far less expensive method. But even that would need a sovereign appropriation.