ZoWie wrote: ↑Thu Feb 16, 2023 12:10 pm
1. Trains used to get "hotboxes," basically an overheated wheel bearing. Slowly, with maximum arm twisting and caterwauling, railroads are converting to more modern types of bearings, but overheating is still a problem. There is a second issue, called a dragger, where for whatever reason, overheating or mechanical failure, axles break and drag on the ground. Therefore, by law, railroads have to provide sensors at regular intervals that check for both.
2. The typical procedure used to be that the engineer would drive the train, which is a full time job in itself, and someone else would check the telemetry from the detectors and let the engineer know if he was safe to "highball," aka continue at maximum permitted speed. Now, we know from what few facts have been released that this train had either a hotbox by any other name or a dragger. The investigation centers on what was done about it. What did they know, and when did they know it? There are early indications that someone on the crew knew there was a problem. If true, then the probable cause will come down to what happened afterward.
2a. The actual safety situation is in constant flux, because railroads and the government oscillate back and forth between what constitutes a competent train crew. In the current labor dispute, I believe crew size was one of the issues.
2b. There are also two kinds of brakes, e-brakes and the old mechanical kind where a drop in air pressure passes through the entire mile of cars and slowly applies the brakes.* The e-brakes are said to stop trains faster, though fast is relative with metal on metal. It just isn't that easy to stop a train. Anyway, the government and the railroads have been going back and forth on what constitutes good brakes for decades now.
3. After a series of really bad accidents culminating in an explosion wiping out part of a town in Canada, safety measures were put into place, but they have been negotiable ever since. It goes back and forth, depending on who runs the government and which lawyers the railroads have hired this year. Indeed, some trains were given stiffer requirements, but it turns out that this train, despite being over a mile long and carrying at least 50 hazardous loads, was exempt. In other words, even had drumpf not changed the law, the train wouldn't have needed to spend money on the precautions.
4. Is this any way to run a railroad? In this case, Norfolk Southern is covering up something, or is getting what may be good legal advice but which is also very bad PR. Last night, apparently on advice of counsel, their reps did not show up at the town meeting after saying they'd be there. From what I've read, the reaction of the large crowd in a school gym was somewhat short of a necktie party or torches and pitchforks, but still pretty angry. Not good PR, and it gives me the idea that they're covering up some kind of actionable gross negligence.
5. Indeed, they did not burn off the vinyl chloride to prevent an explosion. They burned it off so they could get in and fix the tracks and get revenue from them again sooner. No wonder the lawyer said to shut up and not go anywhere.
5a. Either way, you have thousands of dead fish and land animals, and that's never a good sign for human habitation.
6. We are always told that after one of these "events" it's perfectly safe to go back home. It rarely is. Then you wonder why most people see conspiracies in every situation. I think we have a clue here.
*As Glenn undoubtedly knows, air brakes are held OFF by positive air pressure. They fail safe, sort of. In other words, if there is an air loss, they come on.