Looks like Capital Metro overpass clears the UP but not their own spur.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/31/31capmetro.html
dd
Wow, can we get a
DOH!
Best Regards, Big John
Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona. Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the Kiva Valley Railway
Illinois Terminal had the same problem 60 years ago.
They made an ill advised attempt to stay in the interurban passenger business by buying three "steamliners", two and three car sets of "modern" electric interurban equipment that were to scoot around linking central Illinois cities with St. Louis.
They tried, one time, to take one of the new trains into the largest central Illinois city, Peoria. The top of the train hit the top of their Illinois River bridge. It was a "vertical curve" thing where the train comming off the bridge into the Peoria terminal just wouldn't fit.
Service was cut back to E. Peoria. The "streamliners" failed with the loss of several million dollars and the IT went freight only with diesel power.
Amateurs!
Light Rail people and their consultants are "toy train" people for the most part. A real railroad design guy/gal would've caught that blunder in a heartbeat.
Wonder if a civil engineer loses his license over this? (Practicing outside his area of expertise)
Expensive blunder.
you have to think in 3-D. Engineers used to working in the plan view only can often get in trouble.
All you would have had to do is look at Texas TAC Section 5.611....TxDOT (Who took over for the now mislabelled Texas RR Commission), even with Texas' liberal circa 1983 clearance rules, would have alarm bells going off at ANYTHING less than 22'-0"...
The news media is every bit as culpable as the dumber-than-a-rock lightrail engineers - Shame on both parties.
mudchicken wrote: All you would have had to do is look at Texas TAC Section 5.611....TxDOT (Who took over for the now mislabelled Texas RR Commission), even with Texas' liberal circa 1983 clearance rules, would have alarm bells going off at ANYTHING less than 22'-0"...The news media is every bit as culpable as the dumber-than-a-rock lightrail engineers - Shame on both parties.
I loved Cap Metros' initial response - "the tallest thing we own is 17 feet." The track in question is an interchange track. Owned equipment has nothing to do with it.
Wonder what else the toy train people failed to think about/on before they lept?
Scary...
I believe much was made of the light rail in Baltimore missing a few obsacles by only a few inches.
I should not laugh, I scraped a few objects myself... note I said scraped...
4 feet difference? 23 vs 19? People die. Especially at highway speed.
Dont wish for this type of accident to happen to a double stack.
railroadjj wrote:Not really wishing at all. But from what I have heard from the UP Austin has not talked to them except to say they were putting a bridge in. They did not get measurements of the trains, they only used there locomotives to gage it.
If that's all they used and you know double stacks use that line in question why arent someone calling them up and saying "HEY! You have stacks on that line higher than a engine used to measure for that bridge!"
I dont know. But someone somewhere knows how high that bridge is going to be and it must be higher than anything that will travel under it...
If not? Oops.
Safety Valve wrote: railroadjj wrote:Not really wishing at all. But from what I have heard from the UP Austin has not talked to them except to say they were putting a bridge in. They did not get measurements of the trains, they only used there locomotives to gage it. If that's all they used and you know double stacks use that line in question why arent someone calling them up and saying "HEY! You have stacks on that line higher than a engine used to measure for that bridge!"I dont know. But someone somewhere knows how high that bridge is going to be and it must be higher than anything that will travel under it...If not? Oops.
the overpass has legal clearance over the UP main line. That part was done correctly. The problem is Cap Metro's own interchange track. That spur connect the existing Austin & Northwest track (which crosses the UP at the McNeil diamond) with the UP. The spur line has sub-legal clearance as the overpass was designed.
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