ALL:
I still cannot post to the "Digest Board" so---What is causing the various Washington Area Transit cars to uncouple from each other? I remember an NTSB report regarding that subject.
Any You Tube pictures of said uncoupling?
Ed Burns
Most recent event had something to do with a loose bolt that was apparently retightened on the sly by the time investigators got to it -- WMATA then found 'issues' with 18 other trains, a couple of which appear to have involved incompatible parts.
The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission's letter to WMATA (October 20th):
https://wmsc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/WMSC-Investigation-Evidence-Finding_102020_FINAL.pdf
As noted, WMATA had 30 days to submit the requested 'action plan' (which would have been due about a week ago). That will likely shed little additional light on the specific problem causing this separation. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, WMATA subsequently releases on the cause of this latest incident, how many other trains were similarly affected, and how much extra cost or enhanced inspection is involved...
An earlier separation (in 2018) involved a failure between cars in a married pair, which is ominous in itself...
https://ggwash.org/images/posts/_resized/decouple2.png
I had understood the December 2016 'uncoupling' at Twinbrook was due to not locking the couplers correctly, and while I never followed up on it I presume the January incident on the Green Line had a similar cause.
There was a gap in car inspection to ensure that the coupling parts had not worn down. It was suggested that they were never inspected since the cars were introduced.
American Flyer link couplers?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
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