Posted on 03/14/2018 5:14:54 PM PDT by george76
THE NSW Government has an embarrassing problem with $2 billion worth of new trains that are on order — they’re too wide to go through the tunnels.
Whereas the current trains are 2.9m wide, the new models being built in South Korea are 20cm wider. That small difference could have a big impact.
It means the new trains could collide with the tunnel walls on their way up to the world famous Blue Mountains.
But Transport for NSW (TfNSW), the Government body that manages the state’s rail system, has come up with a cunning plan. It has proposed simply relaxing current safety standards. In addition, 10 tunnels built in the 1900s will be partially modified to allow the new trains to run.
...
It takes a special type of incompetence to buy trains that don’t fit through the tunnels,” Mr Foley said.
Transport bosses have insisted the trains will operate safely but conceded that, in places, rules will have to be broken.
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It’s not the first time regional trains have caused pain.
...
the tunnels would also be “notched” in places. This involves gouging a chunk out of the existing tunnel where the clearance is narrowest to allow the new trains the pass through.
This gouge could be almost 13cm deep, much of which will take place on curves where trains are more prone to swaying.
Around a third of the total length of the tunnels will have to be modified in a process that could take two years and will involve parts of the line to be closed for periods.
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The cost of the tunnel modifications will be in addition to the $2.3 billion cost of the new trains.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
sounds like the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transexual District (BART, aka FART)
My favorite scene in Atlas Shrugged is when the bureaucrat insists that his coal-burning train be allowed to go through the very long unventilated tunnel through the Rockies — the last open choke-point for anyone travelling across the continent.
The train crew says it’s suicide.
The government guy says “Do you know who I am?”
They go through, they all suffocate in the middle and the train stops.
And then the Army train loaded with munitions enters the tunnel from the other direction. BOOM! Going East to West or West to East just became a whole lot harder.
Never heard of measure twice, build once? Something like that. /S
I’d like to hope that the modifications were actually embraced at the time of specifying the new trains. That the suspensions were going to be stiffer and/or dynamically controlled in the new trains leading to less leaning in corners. How will “notching” occur without hurting the structural integrity of tunnel walls? I’d jocularly recommend putting up Teflon rub plates!
And, of course, hacking chunks out of the sides of tunnels won’t have any impact upon structural integrity.
Reminds me of a story a few years ago out of France, when they bought 2000 train sets that were too wide to allow use at 1300 stations on the system. Of course, you have to expect folks to cut corners on a 15 Billion Euro project.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10845789/French-rail-company-order-2000-trains-too-wide-for-platforms.html
No pumping air through the silly thing huh?
No problem
They will just build new tunnels. (/sarc)
There ya go! Run ‘em. Let’s find out...
It’s going to need rebuilding the affected tunnels with new walls I think. Again maybe this is a drama story and it actually was planned in.
"That small difference could have a big impact."
8 inches is now small? Bummer.
Same thing happened here in good ol USA. Amtrak’s Acela fleet was built to tilt so it could go around curves faster, but clearances we’re off, so they go a bit slower and don’t tilt.
That’s 4 inches a side.
Still — these trains came within 4 inches of rubbing on the walls already? That’s kind of tight. Maybe the work around will be just to take corners slower. Until, that is, they don’t. Scraaaaaaape!
Years ago, I was asked to do some testing for a rather small but consequential application on some light rail cars that were in production. 5 or 6 years later, they called to tell us the cars were failing and it was our fault.
Long story short, we’re in a conference call with these doofuses and I proceeded to read them my documented application recommendation and then discuss the multiple things they did wrong.
One of them had the audacity to ask what we were going to do about it. (it turned into a multi-million dollar problem) I said “We’re not doing anything about it. You smart guys ignored my instructions so it’s now your problem.”
And that was it. The problem for us went completely away.
My experience with rail car builders isn’t deep, but they don’t seem all that sharp.
During a stint with UPRR I learned that safety spacing around a train was pretty wide. If you could touch two trains with outstretched arms, that was too close. NSW might have been pushing the margins for years. What else is in the picture? Heavier passenger load?
It’s not like airplanes that you can make as big as practical.
I vaguely remember a French aircraft carrier being too short for a very expensive launch system.
Hate when that happens. I wonder if that would have worked on the Amtrak crash in Tacoma last month.
The gub'mint project managers had the MDs put down for the COD, TB or pneumonia or similar.
I thought the movie did that part pretty well.
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