Spanish rail accident

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Nothing about that so far.

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any chance driver asleep ?

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Reports are now that the train was going at least 119 mph in a 49 mph zone on a sharp curve.  Also it had been under the Spanish version of ATC/PTC, but that section ended at point earlier.   Driver error.

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oltmannd

Lots to wonder about, for sure.  I haven't seen wreck pictures that bad since the Colonial.  As bad as it is, it does seem that a lot of the car bodies did seem to fair pretty well.  100+ mph train has a lot of energy that has to go somewhere in a wreck.  I'm not sure there are there are always good solutions for managing that much energy in such a short time.

 Agree the Colonial certainly does compare.   It appears the train went from  ~  120 MPH speed to stop in about  a  train length ?  And to use an old saw.   The passengers were subject to the sudden stop at the next seat or worse at the front of each car ?

 

[oltmannd]

blue streak 1

One has to wonder if the cars had remained connected what would the results have been ??   Are  any of the various Talgo models in the PNW operated with a more robust coupler system ??  No shelf couplers ?

Lots to wonder about, for sure.  I haven't seen wreck pictures that bad since the Colonial.  As bad as it is, it does seem that a lot of the car bodies did seem to fair pretty well.  100+ mph train has a lot of energy that has to go somewhere in a wreck.  I'm not sure there are there are always good solutions for managing that much energy in such a short time.

[oltmannd]

blue streak 1

2.  This is not part of ETRMS

Horrible wreck.  If you think PTC is expensive to do, take a look at what ETRMS requires sometime.

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SAM1 ;   don't expect it to cocntinue indefinitely.  Once I have full recovery then back to old grindstone..

Looking at the video it appears that what some think was an explosion was probably an electrical short explosion.   You can barely see the second car take out a CAT pole and then the flash.

 

[Anonymous]

Blue Streak

You get my hands down vote as the person in these forums who seems to have a wider grasp of passenger train news around the world than anyone.  

I have a picture of you sitting in a room somewhere, surrounded by TV monitors, focused on all the railroad news feeds. Much like the commodity traders in our company!  They have a minimum of three monitors going at any one time.  They are focused on markets in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Keep it coming.   

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Here is a You tube video of the actual acccident.  a 9 second video with only about 2 seconds of the accident.  If one of our computer geeks can slow it down for us it would  help.   Appears that car behind power car tilted and pulled power car off rails.  Then a quick look at rear cars acting like anaccordian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ltax00Lkb4&feature=player_embedded

 

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Another video of salvage operations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23447097

Looking at how the cars accordianed makes one wonder if that contributed to deaths.  The French derailment last week the fatalities were on the platform (s) and that train mostly stayed in a straight line.   These are questions for the Talgos in the Pacific north west ?  

Many residents reported hearing an explosion.  I have no idea how loud a 25 Kv line shorting out would sound ??  Is this even 25 Kv ?? . 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0376x74/live

On this link scroll down to a picture of a crane removing a car.   Thaere is a BBC radio channel 4 extensive report.  Highlights ----------

1. Driver admitted going 190+ KPM

2.  This is not part of ETRMS

3.  This curve had concers spoken about 2 years ago because of its restrictions from 190 to 80 KPM,

4.  Previos riders had noted rough ride on curve.

5.  Curve not eased due to financial constraints & having to purchase much land in a heavily populated area.

6.  Line used old ROW in this area but track rebuilt  (  to standard guage ?? )

7.  Fatalities may now be 79 ??

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4.  Cu

[southsydney2013]

ITlooks like a spanish talgo on the spanish wide guage of 5 foot 3 ins train control unkown ,waiting on euro contact for more details

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BBC word news reported at about 0930 GMT on PBS that 77 person died.   They also reported that the train may have been going 190+ KPM and speed limit waas 80 KPH. ( ~  118 mph   vs  50 MPH ).  Wonder if that true ?

Questions for Mario.   What guage is this line & what type train control ?   ( ETRMS ? )

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One has to wonder if the cars had remained connected what would the results have been ??   Are  any of the various Talgo models in the PNW operated with a more robust coupler system ??  No shelf couplers ?

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An update from BBC  at 1801 ET

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23444848

 

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report on NBC at 6:03 PM  ( 2203 GMT ) of serious train accident in Spain  30+ reported fatalities however it is very preliminary ?

EDIT   A BBC 1758 european time report is below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23442018

Earlier report with 10 dead

http://news.yahoo.com/least-ten-killed-train-derails-spain-report-195902475.html;_ylt=Antxjn8vtYpa8d_8xhcqzhjR_3YA;_ylu=X3oDMTJjNmlxYzI0BG1pdANOZXdzIEFydGljbGUgVG9kYXkgTW9kdWxlIFJpZ2h0IFJhaWwEcGtnA2lkLTMzOTk2MDIEcG9zAzQEc2VjA2hjbQR2ZXIDMTA-;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

 Now reports of 40+  The below link shows what appears to be a Talgo and amazingly one of its cars appears to have jumped up some 30 ft above tracks.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324564704578626253124833408.html#slide%252F1%3D%26articleTabs%3Dslideshow

Update from  BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23444848

EDIT another link

http://news.sky.com/story/1120030/spain-train-crash-dozens-killed-and-injured