Ouch.
Posted on 06/29/2016 1:04:28 PM PDT by TEXOKIE
Edited on 06/29/2016 1:27:50 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Investigators said Wednesday they believed three missing crew members aboard two freight trains that collided head-on in the Texas Panhandle did not survive.
Emergency personnel have moved from a rescue effort to a recovery operation, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Dan Buesing said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Texas freight train wreck in city of Panhandle, Texas. 3 crew thought dead, 1 survived.
bgill, I saw your link about this on the Texas Board, but this story is different. I could not figure out how to post on your board (Maybe I can’t!) so, if you would, when you get a chance, please offer my condolences to our Texas Freepers for this loss and disaster. Thank you.
Merciful Father,
Please be with and enfold the souls of those 3 who are feared dead. Comfort and help their families and loved ones and communities. Help the survivor heal. Grant that there be a minimizing of this kind of disaster in the future. Amen
Would have been prevented .... in 2018.
“BNSF has pledged to meet a 2018 federal deadline to adopt technology, called positive train control or PTC, that relies on GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train positions and automatically slow or stop trains that are in danger of colliding, derailing due to excessive speed or about to enter track where crews are working or that is otherwise off limits. At least three freight railroads have said they’ll need an extension to 2020.”
Or sooner, smarty gator. I happen to be a contractor for a different, unnamed Class 1 freight railroad, programming the computer back end of this same system. While I do not know what BNSF’s schedule is, a 3-year roll-out is happening with the railroad I work with, and there would be good reason to believe BNSF’s is similar.
Along with the benefits comes some vulnerability. Because of the near fire-drill pace of the deployment (and talking about 2018 for completion) the security measures may not be as good as they could be. Tampering with the system could at least defeat its purpose, and possibly bring a whole railroad’s trains to a halt because it is basically a “mother may I” architecture. If the system does not give the train the go-ahead, the train must stop.
Ouch.
The roads have been working hard on PTC implementation for years now. 2018 is a pretty realistic timeframe considering how much work is left to do. It’s not a trivial problem.
Which I like to point out whenever people start talking about self-driving cars. PTC for trains is an order of magnitude easier, and it’s taking a decade and billions of dollars to implement...
Do you know what the system is being built on the old Mich. Central/MiDOT/Amtrak line that has been under construction for more than a year?
Are the crews able to communicate with each other to get an understanding of what going on? I’ve listened to radio traffic on the MRL in Mt. and it seems like the crews, dispatcher and MOW crews are in constant communication.
My specialty area is not cognizant of dispatching details. The dispatchers tell the trains what to do; the PTC system tells the trains whether they may do it at all.
However a common problem causing wrecks is crews fallen asleep or that otherwise blow by a signal. If they are not alert to signals, I doubt that they care about the radio either. PTC gets around this by stopping a train heading into danger even if, hypothetically, its whole crew was knocked out.
Or rather, the dispatchers tell the CREWS what to do with their trains....
Maybe it’s just a case of local action where helper locos and crew have to interact with many trains getting over the hump. Everybody is awake because of the coordination needs.
Long runs would be more prone to get sleepers.
>>Long runs would be more prone to get sleepers.
Hours of service laws are designed to allow crews their rest.
It was 16 hours limit in my time in the late 60s; I think it is
12 hours presently.
And their families. :-(
Along with the benefits comes some vulnerability.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
That was my concern as well.
I understand what you mean, libstripper. I dearly hope it ISN’T the “S” word you referenced. And if it is that word, would that ever be revealed to us? A friend of mine who is a retired railroader stated he thought it could be someone who wasn’t alert - and therefore missed any alarms.
Either scenario is horrible to contemplate.
Agreed. I’m so sad about this loss.
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