My Two Cents on the New Haven Line Event

Over the past several days, much has been debated in the wake of the Metro-North derailement/collision on the New Haven line. Of all the debates I read two statements (or variations thereof) that really annoyed me:

"Of course it had to be the new trains."
"FRA mandates are absurd."

Here are two photos for your consideration:

Friday's crash - credit: @RobOliverCT on Twitter

M2 car from a 1988 incident in Mount Vernon, NY - credit: here

Sure, it sucks that a handful of brand new rail cars are likely headed to the scrapper instead of a couple of crappy old cars that were headed there anyway, but I believe that if this incident had occurred between two trains of the old equipment - or even if one of the trains had the old equipment we wouldn't have just 70something people injured, We'd probably have 70something people dead.

To fill you in on the second photo, on April 6, 1988 (which was Metro North's last super srsbznz accident) a train was stopped outside of Mount Vernon East because of some sort of electrical problem while deadheading to Greenwich. While it was stopped, a train deadheading to New Rochelle rear-ended it. In the things that I've read (and maybe someone who has direct knowledge can fill me in - since this crash about 9 months before my time) the FRA and the NTSB came to different conclusions about why this occurred. The FRA claims the second train blew a signal and hadn't cut in the cab signals (the Harlem line didn't have cab signals yet, but the New Haven did), but the NTSB came to the conclusion that the cab signal had a normal indication. Either way, it was estimated that the train hit the other one doing anywhere between 45 and 60 miles an hour. I believe only the engineer of the second train died in this incident, but obviously the fact that these were non-passenger moves had everything to do with that.  Which equipment would you rather be in a collision in?

That brings me to my second point. On several occasions (and in the past too), I've heard numerous people whining about how utterly ridiculous and absurd the FRA's requirements are for rail car construction are, and that they make the cars too heavy, etc. Clearly the FRA's "absurd" requirements that were taken into consideration when Kawasaki built the M8's saved lives. I see the fireman's side of the cab smashed to hell (and in other photos elsewhere - Google image search is your friend - sides of a few cars ripped off from impact). For a collision where both trains were doing around 70 at the time they collided, I think that those trains held up pretty damn well don't you? There were no fatalities, which is astonishing. Now that the M8's have proven their crash-worthiness in a real world application, can all the dumb little think they know it all foamers please stick a sock in it about FRA requirements plzkthx? All you do is make yourself sound like an ignorant little turd who only cares about the choo choo trains instead of the safety of the people who ride them.

Alright, now that I've gotten that little rant off my chest, what are your thoughts about what happened?

P.S.: Props to @TarasHeadphones on Twitter for inspiring this whole post with our conversation last night! :)

Tuesday Video Bonus: New Haven Line cleanup

I had already queued today's earlier Tuesday video post before the MTA published this to Youtube. In spite of the fact that this video has infinitely more relevance at the moment, "Dumb Ways to Die" needs to be spread among the masses ;)

As you may or may not know, Metro North is planning on restoring full rail service on the New Haven line tomorrow. 5 days post incident (with those other two tracks out for combination bridge and catenary work, which is why this whole thing screwed the New Haven line so badly to begin with) - this, I think, is pretty much nothing short of a miracle - although to be honest, I kind of was saying that on twitter this past weekend. It does however suck for potential TV interviews that were supposed to happen Wednesday, but I'll get over it. Eventually.

This is the MTA's video of some of the reconstruction efforts. Hats off to all departments involved. Really.


There have also been some really good pictures posted to Metro North's Facebook page and the MTA's Flickr page highlighting what they had to do to rebuild the track, which was clearly no small feat!

Tuesday Video: Dumb Ways to Die

Somehow I only just came across this.

Dear Australia. You rock. This has got to be the most adorably cute, yet twisted train safety video ever. And the resultant website is pretty good too.

Lucky for you, when the chorus gets stuck in your head, there's a free download of the song on Soundcloud.

You're welcome for the ear worm. Now if only we could inspire such creativity here in the United States for train safety campaigns!

Grand Central Centennial: The Parade of Trains

Allow me to preface this by saying that I wrote the vast majority of this last Sunday night on the long ride home, and I am not deliberately ignoring Friday night's unfortunate turn of events on the New Haven line, which is my home line of Metro North. It obviously sucks for all involved, and it is utterly miraculous that there were no fatalities. Healing thoughts with all who were affected, be it crew (luckily nobody that I personally know who works for the railroad was on either train), passengers, and first responders. (In case you didn't know: a Metro North train derailed and was struck by a train going in the opposite direction, and upwards of 60 people were injured.) All I have to say is that all of the FRA naysayers need to stick a sock in it, because if either train consist was comprised of the older cars, I doubt that the casualty count would be as small as it is. Also, I was on car 9310 on the way to the Centennial Parade of Trains, and it was one of the cars involved in the event. I'm a little creeped out to be honest.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming:

The program of events :)

Grand Central Terminal's centennial year is still being marked with special events, and last weekend was no exception. Sprawled across 4 tracks in the terminal, the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains was the largest assembly of privately owned rail cars in Grand Central Terminal. (Clearly it blew 2012's National Train Day display, provided in conjunction with Amtrak, out of the water, and last year's display was pretty impressive.) Actually, I wish Amtrak teamed up with Metro-North for this year's activities, since Amtrak did run out of Grand Central Terminal between its inception and 1991, when the Empire Connection was finished and all operations were consolidated to Penn Station - they're a part of the first 100 years of the terminal...but I digress. (I wanted to look at some Amtrak equipment, so sue me.)

I didn't go to the festivities Saturday - and Saturday was National Train Day, so revoke my railfan card plzkthx because obviously I suck ;) - but I did go Sunday. I'm glad I put it off a day, because some of the stories I heard about 2+ hour waits to see some of the equipment was DEFINITELY offputting. I got to GCT at 9:50am, met up with the person I was going with, and we pretty much waltzed right in. With the exception of an old Pennsylvania Railroad mail car, nothing on the 1st set of tracks was anything you could go on (with the exception of an M8 pair - which was the same thing I rode to GCT in so that wasn't a necessity to say the least) so that went pretty quickly. We waited in line for MAYBE 20 minutes for the Hickory Creek - which was present last year for NTD - but absolutely gorgeous and worth waiting in line for. Let me tell you, if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to charter a train with that on the end and ride it across the country...

Historically inaccurate? Yes.
Still a nice display, and it did used to run to GCT

I noticed that in the "aftermath" so to speak, of last week, people were criticizing the historical relevance of some of the stuff there, and the accuracy (protip: New York Central never actually had any FL-9's), but it is quite the undertaking to even put on an event like this, so I think everyone should be pretty grateful for what was offered for presentation. My only gripe is that the place that they procured the "New York Central" FL-9 (painted as such back around the turn of the millenium in celebration of the New York Central's 150th anniversary) does have a New Haven FL-9, but I hear rumblings that this silly painted one was in better condition to traverse the rails to get to New York. Oh well, I guess.

Overall, I think that the Pennsylvania Railroad post office car provided by the Danbury Rail Museum was probably my favorite of everything featured though.

Another nice touch was that New York City transit ran a train of old cars on the 42nd Street shuttle in conjunction with the event. As I posted back in December, I thoroughly enjoyed my first nostalgia train ride, so the shuttle was definitely a huge bonus in my book. The consist was an R-12, an R-15, and an R-33 from the New York Transit Museum. Again, it was a lot of fun to zip between Grand Central and Times Square (multiple times, because all the cool kids have to ride in each individual car) in the old cars compared to the relatively sterile experience of the modern-day stuff.

Below is a video of the view out the front of the R33 between Grand Central and Times Square - watch closely and you might see a cameo from a certain Railroad.net forum admin ;) Also, excuse the auto-focus issue. Phone does better quality video than still camera, but phone likes to auto-focus on things it shouldn't...


Here is a slide show of the pictures I took, again, like last year I'm angry at how they came out. My camera lacks in the "performing well under low light" department.


Did you go to the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains? What was your favorite of the equiment displayed?

Tuesday Video: Ooh Pretty...

Apparently Amtrak's shiny new Siemens ACS-64 electrics for the Northeast Corridor are what all the cool kids are talking about as of late, so I feel compelled to offer my two cents worth.

Personally, overall, I like how they look, but I kind of hope the flag is a show piece - I'm all for national pride, and hell, Amtrak is America's railroad, but I do think it's a bit on the obnoxiously large side.

See what I mean?

Then again, I suppose a little flag under the window like on Metro-North's dual modes would look a bit off...

I still think this is more along the lines of the size they should go for with the flag though.

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing them in service when I adventure down to the New Haven main line. I hope they're a worthy replacement for the AEM-7's and HHP-8's (although from what I hear regarding the latter, that shouldn't be too far of a reach) - because push comes to shove (harhar - totally unintentional, actually) - who cares what these things look like, as long as they work properly, right?

What do you think about the new locomotives?

Wordless Wednesday: As Seen This Weekend

Danbury, CT - Metro North Station - 5/5/13

Breaking the whole "wordless" thing: Obviously as the terminus of the Danbury branch, trains don't come barreling out of nowhere here - however, this moron still is asking for a traumatic amputation. Just saying.

Tuesday Video: Harlem Shake on the Harlem Line

Someone sent this to me on twitter on Saturday night.

The station display says Williams Bridge - so therefore, Harlem Shake on the Harlem Line  = mind blown. Or stupid things amuse me. Either way...