https://nypost.com/2024/01/04/metro/several-injured-after-subway-train-collision-derailment-in-nyc/
York1 John
Somebody did something WRONG.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDSomebody did something WRONG.
#1 local stopped at the local/express station at 96th Street when some cretin decided to have fun running through the train pulling multiple emergency cords. People were called to reset the trips or whatever, and were actively doing the typical MTA Chinese fire drill getting all the brakes reset.
Meanwhile the following #1 gets rerouted over onto the express track, does its stop, and starts to cross back over to the local track. As it is on the crossovers, accelerating, the stopped train 'moves unexpectedly' -- I'm betting that it's slightly downgrade, and no one had set the main brake while all the emergency valves were being tinkered with -- and the two head ends come into lateral contact, which is where the 'derailment' action came in.
Overmod -- I'm betting that it's slightly downgrade, and no one had set the main brake while all the emergency valves were being tinkered with -- and the two head ends come into lateral contact, which is where the 'derailment' action came in.
-- I'm betting that it's slightly downgrade, and no one had set the main brake while all the emergency valves were being tinkered with -- and the two head ends come into lateral contact, which is where the 'derailment' action came in.
I don't know the track configuration at the location of the incident.
Is the subway configured so that there are crossovers at both ends of passenger stations? If a train is mechanically broken down on any track, other trains need to be routed around the broken down train.
There is a whole lot of this incident that makes no sense to me.
This is 96th Street, the furthest north express station that is common to the #1 local (to 242nd St.) and the 2-3 expresses that cross over the north end of Central Park.
There is a four-track line south of this station, with 'common' local/express stations at the express spacing -- there is a double crossover close to each end of the platform, equipped with trips for the brake system. The crossovers are very carefully interlocked, and power-operated.
For this to have happened, something that allowed the 'first' train to roll, with low enough reservoir pressure that hitting the trip didn't actuate any braking effort, would have had to happen. I can easily see this from a hurry-up releasing of multiple emergency-brake valves in the cars.
If this is right, the train on the local track would not have had the crossover lined, and would probably have split the switch which was lined for the train crossing over from the express track under power. That train would have almost certainly been stopped had it not passed the platform-end signal (and tripper) and actually started negotiating the crossover track before the other train moved enough to actuate the signal and trip at its platform end.
Hand-brakes should have cbeen applied during the release process until regular air took over.
I suspect a named 'contributing factor' is that you had multiple people frantically working to reset emergency brakes in multiple cars -- each perhaps thinking that someone else was putting on enough handbrake while they got target fixation on getting the air brakes unlocked and recharged.
More misfortune than bad judgment that the roll coincided with the other train advancing past the signal and crossing over. I am tempted to quote the New Haven guy associated with the Baldwin lightweight-train-locomotive fire who said something like 'ten more minutes and I would have been a hero'...
What is the Operator's responsibility when a undesired emergency brake application happens? Who are the multiple people accessing each of the cars to reset the E-brakes on each of the cars? Are these multiple people in communication with and under the control of the Operator? While haste is necessary in fixing the situation, there also has to be CONTROL in fixing the situation.
Didn't this exact same type accident happen many years ago believe in Queens?
F train derails one car wedensday about 1230 PM.
Subway derails on F train line in Brooklyn (msn.com)
Here is a NY Times about 1970 accident
QUEENS IND CRASH KILLS 2, INJURES 71 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
JURY LAYS BLAME FOR IND COLLISION - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
new york subway accident 1970 roosevelt avenue - Search Images (bing.com)
What is the old RR saying? Something like this. Remember your mistaskes and do not repeat them. Although this accident happened in 1970 still it should have been in the memory. Have to wonder if radio contact is lost and person is in lead should he lay on the horn either continously or a series of blasts to signify stop?
When I started flying an old head told me to read every accident report. Then you might not make the same mistakes. Was veery good advice all thru my career.
I'm not going to fight the New York Times paywall, but I remember the 1970 accident as a rear-end collision under power, the result of an abuse of 'key by' to permit shorter following headway in certain areas of congestion (ISTR it being an East River bridge or approach)
There are likely no real operational or physical similarities to the 96th St. mishap. It might also be interesting to see just how many operating personnel in MTA were working more than a half century ago. The key-by procedures have been revised that long...
The horn signals that I have observed used on the New York subway lines for 'alert' or 'emergency' were a repeated series of long-short tones separated by short spaces. This remains, in my opinion, the best simple alert in noisy areas with high multipath reflection.
blue streak 1 F train derails one car wedensday about 1230 PM. Subway derails on F train line in Brooklyn (msn.com)
some bolts missing from truck. May have contributed to derailment
NY: MTA seeks to crack case of missing F train bolts in Coney Island subway derailment | Mass Transit (masstransitmag.com)
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