Train derails in The Netherlands

[York1]

 

https://kfab.iheart.com/content/2020-11-02-derailed-train-crashes-through-station-stops-on-a-large-whale-sculpture/

 

Edit:  I guess this should really go in Transit.  My mistake.

Is there a simple way to move it?

[Flintlock76]

No, it's fine where it is.  Besides, there's a moral here.

Save the whales, and they'll return the favor!  As the song says...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndaXQeRPO0g  

[Falcon48]

I commented on this on another thread, but let me repeat a slightly expanded version of my comment here.

I've looked at several photos of this incident.  Superficially, it certainly looks like the sculpture is holding up the car.  But, of course, that can't be.  There's no way a lightweight plastic sculpture could be holding up the weight of a heavy rapid transit car.

Here's what I see from the various photos.  The sculpture has nothing to do with the accident - it was just something that happened to be in its way.  Note that approximately 1/3 of the suspended car is still on the elevated track structure.  Now, note that the suspended car is still coupled to the car behind it, which is entirely on the elevated structure.  It looks to me that the two are a "married pair" probably connected by a solid drawbar, but I don't know this for a fact.  In any case, it is evident from all of the photos I've seen that the cars are still coupled.

What this means is that the second car is effectively a counterweight to the suspended car.  The weight of the second car plus the weight of the unsuspended 1/3 portion of the forward car is undoubtedly greater than the weight of the dangling 2/3 portion of the forward, suspended car.  Therefore, the suspended car does not plunge off the end of the elevated structure (as it undoubtedly would if the coupling between the two cars broke, obliterating the sculpture beneath it).

The "counterweight effect" would be even greater if the second car was still coupled to the rest of the train, in which case the weight of the entire train would be holding the suspended car from plunging to the ground.  It looks from the photos that the coupling was intact, but I can't tell for sure.      

 

[MMLDelete]

Looks like a trained whale to me. But maybe it's all just a tall tail.

[Gramp]

I wonder if the passengers threw a guy named Jonah off the train. 

[Overmod]

Falcon48

Note that approximately 1/3 of the suspended car is still on the elevated track structure.

I distinctly see the forward wheelset of the rear truck on that car in the air, well past the concrete edge of the overhead.  In fact it looks to me as if both axles of that truck are airborne -- which implies that the car is supported on the tail at the front and the drawbar at the rear.  

I cannot imagine a drawbar that would support the entire cantilevered weight of a car that size without significant deflection.  In the picture I see none, or so little it might as well be none.  On the other hand I do see significant deflection of the whale-tail compared to its neighbor.

I do think more pictures of the 'event' should be posted.

Getting this down will likely involve the same thing as the recent UP derails: they will bring in a pair of cranes and take the car to the ground, not make arrangements to 'slide it back'.  In fact I suspect they might take however many coupled units there are at the same time in a coordinated lift, rather than trying to  disconnect the drawbar when the car is balanced as a crane load.

[Overmod]

Gramp

I wonder if the passengers threw a guy named Jonah off the train. 

Not in time.