Posted on 05/15/2015 4:20:44 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey
PHILADELPHIA An assistant conductor on the Amtrak train that derailed on Tuesday believes she heard the engineer tell another regional train operator in a radio transmission that the train had been struck by something just before the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
At a news conference on Friday, Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said the F.B.I. had been asked to examine what he described as a fist-size impact area found on the lower left side of the trains windshield. Officials said that the F.B.I. had been called in because it has the forensics expertise needed for the investigation, but that it had not yet begun its analysis.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Of course that is always a possibility. Could explain the acceleration from 70 to 106 in the minute thirty sec before the derailment, but you would think that a distraction - as the reported 'something hit the train' story - still would not cause a qualified engineer to not remember which side of dead man's curve he was on... We'll need to wait for further analysis of the data recorder to find out if the acceleration was defect triggered or operator initiated.
hence the comment on signal aspect and speed.
My error. I misunderstood your intent with the example.
I am a train person..
Would that be train person as in 'I've been working on the railroad' or train person as in 'foamer trackside with six cameras..' ;-)
(Of course there is the ultimate choice - 'both' ;-)
From a stop...
Port Richmond’s the place my ancestors settled when they got off boats from Ireland (Nativity BVM parish) and Germany (Our Lady Help of Christians parish) 4 generations ago. Still a few cousins up there. Last I was in Port Richmond was 1967. I’m sure it’s changed a lot!
How is the throttle operated?
If the engineer is disabled by a impact on the windshield while accelerating, can the train continue to acceralerate?
I thought most trains had a “dead man’s switch.”
It looks to me like the center fuel tank exploded in the first passenger car.
question is was the train going over 100mph or was it not....
the engineer's ONLY job is to control the speed, am I right?....there is no steering...
what could have possibly prevented the engineer from slowing the train down when he should have...and btw...a slowing down process takes a short while to do it...why wasn't the slowing process started well before the curve?
My first thought too.
If this train was hit it would have been the third train in the Philadelphia region to be have experienced that type of damage within a 30 minute or so window of time. Projectiles breaking windows on trains are so incredibly rare statistically it makes perfect sense for the FBI to investigate whether the separate incidents on the other trains had anything to do with this particular incident.
Exactly.
I know. Or recycled into razor blades. These two weren't...
No.
See HERE for one place this has been discussed.
There was a report from another train that something had hit them a short while before this train’s accident.
It was enough that YOU latched with a scoff onto a remark that said not to be obsessed with the matter. You can hold a mirror up to yourself. He who excuses himself, accuses himself.
As for the bible it says not to sit in the seat of scoffers.
if Amtrak moves to award a billion dollars to the victims without even a court appearance, then we’ll know that they know.....
Some may think my POV extends a klick or two too far beyond the horizon of the box, my reasoning tainted with a number of phobias but don’t let that cause you to miss this list of mostly local attractions you may find interesting
http://www.salatomatic.com/sub/vRvbmiBM7E
Some coincidental background
http://www.cfr.org/israel/al-aqsa-martyrs-brigade/p9127
did that train crash too?.....I think not....
and that crack or breakage could have happened months ago if it was small enough...
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