Re: emergency door releasing on Tangara's, etc.

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <383725E7.AC7865C2@fastlink.com.au> Railway Rasputin <bob@fastlink.com.au> writes:

>Sounds as if the guard needs to brush up on his knowledge of his train.

Perhaps. It's somewhat unfortunate that so many new staff (and I'm not
saying that the guard in question was a new guard - I don't know) are being
pushed through with abhorantly minimalist training when there is just no way
they can gain enough experience in that short time to be ready to handle a
reasonable proportion of all possible scenarios.

>>  The train was evacuated at Hurtville and ran empty cars to the shed.
>>  However at Hurstville the blacked out cars doors didn't work. The driver
>> released the front, the guard the back last car, and the passengers in my
>> car forced and I and some other passengers and the guard held the doors open
>> against the air while every one got off. The guard tried to use the emergency
>> release but it had been cut out by that stage.
>>
>The guard should of opened the door control cabinet squeezed the magnet
>valve to open the doors and pulled the pnematic switch/plunger to make
>them release.

Have you tried to operate one of those locking bar releases in a hurry? 8-)
When I did a train management refresher recently (a few months back) we took
a look at the mechanical emergency release on an R set.

To release a door in an emergency from inside, assuming the guard's door
controls are not working from any location on the train, these steps are
necessary:

 - first the small cupboard above the vestibule seat has to be opened with
   a mortice key

 - the control circuit breakers and the air shutoff plunger have to be
   operated to switch off the electrical and pneumatic power supplies to
   that set of doors

 - the locking bar release plunger, which is concealed up on the end of the
   door motor ram itself and has to be found mostly by feel only, needs to
   be depressed and someone *else* has to actually slide open the far door
   (it only releases one door out of the pair).

Can you imagine trying to do all this quickly? Especially if the car
contains both passengers and possibly smoke, etc. as well? Imagine if the
battery supply to the emergency lights has also failed and the train is
either in a tunnel or outside after the sun has set?

I never knew there was a release plunger for the locking bar until I did
that refresher since they are a fairly recent modification (like in the last
couple of years).

>Also did he take his bell plug to the other half of the train and open
>the close cars from there?
>There should of been no need to "force" anything.

That might not have been an option. Especially if the jumper wiring was
burning and arcing internally (I mean inside the cable sheath, not inside
the car itself) which would have mean internal short circuits, etc.
presumably disabling the remote door control wires and perhaps other control
system features too...

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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