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Re: Meanwhile, for the adults who are on AP for discussions about railroads... NTSB video...
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-16-2023 - 10:00
Peter D. Wrote:
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> HEAT SENSOR'S!!! Near every wheel set, to the lead
> locomotives computer and as back up, print out, to
> division HQ in lieu of a caboose. Then you go walk
> the train. But who?
Who indeed is even watching out for these kinds of things anymore?
Does anyone at all ever bother to "roll the train" even when departing the terminals anymore? I can recall that on numerous occasions when my crews caught unreleased handbrakes while rolling the train out of the terminal, or when rolling the train after making a pickup, over my time at SP.
I've seen a wheel with a six inch crack from overheating due to an unreleased handbrake. We don't know yet the details of the reasons for the reported defect under investigation. But we do now know it had been happening for miles before the derailment, undetected, except by security cameras...
Technologies to detect this kind of thing on the cars do exist, and have become cheaper, but equipping the whole rail car fleet would not be cheap.
From at least one version of this story, at least one heat sensing hot wheel/hot bearing "hot box" detector was apparently finally triggered in this incident, but too late. How many detectors are there, how many had they passed, and were they working properly will be another question the NTSB will likely be asking, too.
In the days of extremely profitable national railroad monopolies "cost cutting", did this kind of event really save a lot of "money"...
When the railroad pays out the full two hundred million dollar liability limit, will it still just be "chump change", when compared to quarterly earnings?
-------------------------------------------------------
> HEAT SENSOR'S!!! Near every wheel set, to the lead
> locomotives computer and as back up, print out, to
> division HQ in lieu of a caboose. Then you go walk
> the train. But who?
Who indeed is even watching out for these kinds of things anymore?
Does anyone at all ever bother to "roll the train" even when departing the terminals anymore? I can recall that on numerous occasions when my crews caught unreleased handbrakes while rolling the train out of the terminal, or when rolling the train after making a pickup, over my time at SP.
I've seen a wheel with a six inch crack from overheating due to an unreleased handbrake. We don't know yet the details of the reasons for the reported defect under investigation. But we do now know it had been happening for miles before the derailment, undetected, except by security cameras...
Technologies to detect this kind of thing on the cars do exist, and have become cheaper, but equipping the whole rail car fleet would not be cheap.
From at least one version of this story, at least one heat sensing hot wheel/hot bearing "hot box" detector was apparently finally triggered in this incident, but too late. How many detectors are there, how many had they passed, and were they working properly will be another question the NTSB will likely be asking, too.
In the days of extremely profitable national railroad monopolies "cost cutting", did this kind of event really save a lot of "money"...
When the railroad pays out the full two hundred million dollar liability limit, will it still just be "chump change", when compared to quarterly earnings?
