Re: Implications of ICE crash

[cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au (Christopher_Martin GORDON)]

: According to the news reports we are getting here, it seems the train 
: derailed because a wheel came off the track (tyre problem) some kms 
: before the crash, which was at a set of points. Surviving passengers 
: report the vibration/noise associated with such an incident. The train 
: derailed when the slipped wheel hit the points.

I am not saying this caused the wheel problem, but in Melbourne
they started putting on disk brakes on the wheels, instead of the
old brakes on the wheel outer.  Apart from the 'flat' wheel problems
the main reason they have switched back to the old style brakes, is
the disk brakes on the side of the wheel develope micro cracks in the
wheel, after lab tests it was shown that these micro cracks can shatter
the wheel after time.

I don't know what type of brakes the ICE train has, nor do I know what
caused the wheel failure, but that is one cause of wheel falure on trains.

--
Chris Gordon
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  email - cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au
  http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~cmgord
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