Re: Train Accident in Blue Mountains

["Richard Wardle" <ricdeb@mpx.com.au>]

John MacCallum <johnmac@MYlisp.com.au> wrote in message
384B0224.D54616E6@MYlisp.com.au">news:384B0224.D54616E6@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.


HERE HERE
I agree with you whole heatedly there John. To consider that the IU was
travelling at that speed is stupid. Also sounds like its coming from someone
who doesn't know what they are talking about.