Re: Train Accident in Blue Mountains

[John MacCallum <johnmac@MYlisp.com.au>]

Dion wrote:- 

> Judging from the penetration of a half-full motorail wagon a good 10-15
> feet into the front of a four car IU and the impact derailing both to a
> 30 degree skew from the running line, surely that doesn't suggest an
> impact of less than 50km/h. The V set may still have been accelerating
> at the time and may have been travelling at only 60-70 km/h when the
> driver saw the rear of the IP ahead, but by the time the brakes came on,
> the distance left to impact would have been even less than the 100
> metres quoted. At that separation they would have had minimal effect.
> 
> Dion

Now Dion I'm really very pissed off with the above statement.
I'm a train driver I can can tell you that I don't know what speed
the IU was going at when it hit the Indian but it certainly wasn't
anywhere
near the 60 or 70 kph you are trying to suggest. 
The IU has on impact been pushed to the outside of the curve and
therefore
the energy was largely not transferred through the frame of the IU but
through
the side and since it struck a car carrier with open sides and exposed 
beams it was opened up like a tin can.
The other thing that suggests to me that the speed of impact was not
that
great is that the Catenary remained intact and in fact also live and
that there
was so little damage done to the track that there are now no speed 
restrictions in place. 


-- 

Pope

Alias	John MacCallum

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