Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

ijustam posted:

http://www.ctnow.com/news/hc-train-accident-bill-0602-20110601,0,7823896.story

That bill is going to have a lot of zeroes on it

That may be pre-empted by the woman's massive lawsuit.
Uncontrolled crossings pose a serious liability hazard for a railroad.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 19:22

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:52

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

InterceptorV8 posted:

You should see the line of engines in L.A. out by Redlands. I swear there is 5 miles of Locomotives just sitting there. I've come across what looks to be grain bellydumps in the middle of LA almost to AR that had to be 8 miles on tracks that looked like hell. I kinda wonder what kind of crazy poo poo they have parked in the middle of Nevada.

Drove by that today. Crazy.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 07:54

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Geoj posted:

Like I said, I don't know all the particulars. Maybe there was a blind turn just before the crossing and the train going more than twice as fast as it should have while approaching a non-functional signal with an inexperienced operator at the controls was a factor. I think it speaks volumes that the railroad settled without even a hint of legal action. Unless railroads are incredibly twitchy and settle if there's even a possibility of a lawsuit, most businesses that have deep enough pockets to have armies of attorneys don't settle unless their rear end is on the line.

That is a pretty typical practice.
Railroads lose these suits a lot. They offer what seems like a lot of money with an agreement not to sue.
It works exactly like a car accident with injury where you get a seemingly huge amount that doesn't actually cover your long term care numbers.

Railroads always want to settle in cases that aren't clearly someone going around the gate. It is reallyg hard to argue to a jury that not having a gate or at least lights (or worse a broken gate) isn't negligent at this point.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2011 08:11

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

I want to post a picture of the railroad crossing across a (controlled access) freeway (Beltline) in Madison, WI. Try stopping for that and not causing a 50 car pile up.
Can't find a photo though

# ¿ Jun 6, 2011 19:29

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

rcman50166 posted:

Hmm, I don't see anything on Google Maps where a railroad and the Beltline intersect. Though there are three railway underpasses. But looking around I found a few retarded crossings in the area:

This was a few years ago, they might have gotten rid of it by now.

Geoj posted:

There's one of these across US 250/30 in Wooster, OH. Can't find it on google maps as I believe the line may be inactive (crossing has "EXEMPT" signs on it,) but they do exist. And yes...stopping to look both ways before proceeding is just as dangerous as blindly trusting the gates in a 60 MPH zone. I get the feeling being rear-ended by a semi at highway speed is going to have the same effect as being broadsided by a train.

This is an excellent example. If the train is traveling NW the tracks are obscured by heavy foliage almost until the tracks meet the road...

...also, the shallow angle at which the tracks cross the road would make it difficult to see down the tracks to the SE if you're traveling north.

The other issue there is that if the crossing malfunctions and one has a green light, one will likely just proceed as normal in that situation

nm fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jun 6, 2011

# ¿ Jun 6, 2011 20:53

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Geoj posted:

Wow, look at that.

I made someone mad enough to spend money.

But black gold. . .

# ¿ Jun 6, 2011 23:51

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

upsidedown posted:

There are plenty around in the bush and even a bunch in Sydney. There's even one on Parramatta Road.

It's always surprised me that there is a level crossing on perhaps one of the busiest roads in Sydney. I think it's on the Carlingford line so it sees fairly regular passenger services.

Look, they even have the gates on the wrong sides!

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 16:04

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

wolrah posted:

I always have to wonder with the pot stats how it is they're testing. Most common tests look for metabolites which get absorbed in body fat and thus can stick around for a long time after the high is over, we're talking weeks to months for some people, where tests for most other recreational drugs look for things that are out of the body relatively quickly, in the range of hours in a lot of cases. Someone who only smokes weed on the weekend will still be flagged by most tests where someone who starts the day with an Irish coffee will be clean by the afternoon. Heroin sticks around a bit longer but is still mostly gone by the next day. Amphetamines are detectable for a day or two.

If someone uses a bunch of drugs over the weekend and then gets piss tested the following Thursday they'll likely only pop for pot, which kinda skews the statistics as far as non-dependent recreational drug users.

I would imagine that in these cases, where criminal charges can be laid, they do GCMS which can distinguish between metabolites and active THC. The dip tests that are used by employers aren't admissable in court.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2016 03:44

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

MassivelyBuckNegro posted:

you dont do a dip test. the guy pisses in a cup and it gets sent off to a lab to be analyzed.

Yes, that is GCMS, but urine is a terrible source. Do they not draw blood for accidents?

# ¿ Sep 23, 2016 01:11

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

NoWake posted:

Good news is, trucker likely gets to go home.
Good news for the railroad, they might only pay hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of thousands of thousands for a fatality.

Can't think how the crossing would fail to activate, I thought they failed safe. The signal could get shunted by salty slush covering the crossing, but that should make the gates go down and stay down.

One article I read said that it had failed down and the railroad had sent someone out to fix it a bit before this happened. So I bet that guy screwed something up.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/4858097-155/video-shows-frontrunner-train-hit-semi-trailer

quote:

The gates at the intersection, about 1100 North and 100 East, had been affected by severe ice and snow conditions that day and had successfully defaulted to the "down and active" position, the release says. But after an employee arrived at the location, the gates moved to the upward position and remained up as the crash occurred.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 07:11

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Parachutes and a reversed saturn 5 mounted in front of the train sounds like the most ideal safety mechanism. No one stand within a mile of the front of a train though.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2017 18:52

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

The Locator posted:

You sort of have to completely ignore the fact that all of that energy working only on the front locomotive of the train would also cause the worlds largest derailment, and the only derailment where the locomotive was pushed backwards through the entire consist as it was coming off the tracks.

Build stronger trains. Duh.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2017 20:04

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

B4Ctom1 posted:

Oh yeah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTJw284whlc

I'm the CHP officer who knows he needs to GFTO but really wants to watch.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2017 06:24

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

NoWake posted:

I mean, if you're a baron or tycoon in 1920's, what else is actually out there for you to spend money on?

Duesenbergs

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 06:22

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Cygni posted:

Sounds like too much speed:

https://jalopnik.com/amtrak-train-derailment-onto-highway-in-tacoma-reported-1821387267

The first hand report suggests they hit a truck, but there is no grade crossing near that spot. Nearest one in the direction they were traveling was 3 miles earlier.

If you look at google street view (does not appear in sat view), a makeshift dot yard kind of backs up against the tracks. The google street view is a bit old, but if accurate, it is possible someone parked some heavy equipment too close to the tracks.

There has also been some comments that amtrak engineers have been complaining about the difficulty of getting the speed down to 30mph before the curve.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 00:11

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

iospace posted:

So what speed is the curve then, 30 mph or 79 mph?

Seattle Times says 30

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 00:20

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Read that the line is ptc equipped but the trains aren't, awesome.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 16:51

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Train derailment near Olympia: Officials pushed �aggressive� timeline before safety technology was ready:
Monday�s deadly derailment came just months before critical safety technology known as positive train control is scheduled to launch on the route.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...logy-was-ready/

# ¿ Dec 20, 2017 08:24

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Remember that the reason the empire builder exists is not for chicago-seattle but like havre, mt to whitefish or something.
Many of these cities don't even have greyhound.
Amtrak is expensive, but it is cheaper than subsidizing air travel to remote airports (rural air routes are given even more government support than regular routes). Also, when there are flights from small cities, even with federal funding, flights out of small cities tend to approach really loving expensive.

The question essentially is do you think people need to own a car, and a car reliable enough to for hundreds of miles from home, to travel from very rural towns and if not whether the government should fund it. Clearly the reps from those states believe it should because you'll never see a bi-partsian reaction like trying to cancel, reduce, or even re-route a long distance train. This is also why it has 20 million stops.

I do think NW, california, and upper midwest (minneapolis-chicago) trains should be able to make money if they are fast enough. They make a huge about of sense.

nm fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Dec 22, 2017

# ¿ Dec 22, 2017 17:44

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Theris posted:

People still do it, because for many it's still the best option. Seriously it's why congress lets the long distance routes continue to exist. The retirees and train nerds taking sleepers from end to end are just there to help subsidize service for the native family travelling from one res to the next or the oil field worker going home from Williston to Fargo for the weekend. If you do take one from end to end, you'll see the faces in the coaches cycle almost completely two or three times during the trip.

Yeah, on my transam ride, I killed my wheel in libby, mt. There is no bike shop there nor public transit beaides greyhound. There is one in whitefish, so I was able to hop on th train at butt-o-clock with my wheel and got bailed the gently caress out.
I was absolutely not the only person doing that route that day. Without that train, those people would be stuck.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2017 21:41

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

^^^^^^^^^
As I have I.

MikeCrotch posted:

Paxman Valentas and Intercity Swallow livery. Name a more classic combo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RgfyXZI_Bs

In like 1992 or 1991, my parents rented a house on the ECML just south of York. There was, and maybe still is, a massive foamer hangout a bit south of where we were where the line split. I was 6 or 7 and absolutely loved the 125s and, to a lesser extent, 225s (125s look cooler and made engine noises). I left England after that and only came back after privatization and the vulgar paint jobs that replaced executive and swallow liveries made me sad.

I may have some intercity toys in a box somewhere. I wonder.

nm fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Apr 4, 2018

# ¿ Apr 4, 2018 07:27

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Disgruntled Bovine posted:

I'd love to take a cross-country train trip one of these days, but I would not be able to sleep in my seat and sleeper accommodations are ridiculously expensive. I think the best way to do it would be to get off the train each night to sleep in a motel or something and then get back on the next day, but given how infrequently a lot of the long distance Amtrak trains run that might not be feasible.

Roomettes on the Coast starlight aren't bad price wise. Like $500 including the ticket (which is like $200). You can do it for under $400 if you book well enough in advance.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2018 02:03

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

I saw $69 flights to denver and randomly bought a ticket to Denver and a return to California on the California Zephyr in a roomette. It's on Veteran's day weekend, so if the train is late, I still have an extra day buffer which apparently might be needed.
I haven't done a sleeper in the US since I was like 5, want to experience it before the new amtrak head gets rid of them.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2018 08:26

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Taking a Amtrak long distance sleeper from Denver to CA. It's already more than a hour late. AMA.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2018 16:21

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

We're making up time now. Just the Colorado section has made the entire fare worth it.

Also I have 8 pint cans of good beer in a cooler, so things are looking good.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2018 23:24

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Log082 posted:

I'm jealous. I was going to take a trip from DC to Pittsburgh instead of flying for a work conference, but sadly the train left at 5 pm and got in at midnight, so I wouldn't see anything interesting. It's a shame, I bet the trip through the mountains is pretty.

For the record this has been loving awesome and we're only getting in like a hour late (knock on wood). Also, I killed 8 strong pint cans.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2018 23:39

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

We had the coolest room attendant and dining car staff, with lax enforcement of the outside booze in your room only rule.
Lots of interesting people too. The scenery was also amazing.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2018 00:23

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Sirotan posted:

I have hosed up both times I've done an Amtrak sleeper car trip in that I did not bring a cooler.

I've got a million Amtrak points now thanks to those trips+the Amtrak Mastetcard bonus so I'm trying to decide which route I should try out next. Chicago to New Orleans? Chicago to Austin? Never been to either city, anyone know if one route is more scenic than the other?

Go all out and either go to San Francisco or Seattle/Portland. The scenery was so good. I've heard some of the shorter routes also have pretty lame food now, which would be a bummer. The food was actually pretty solid on this.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2018 01:47

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

vains posted:

the fact that it isn't clear to anyone whether or not amtrak is supposed to make money is the problem, not its present p&l statement.

i dont think there is any similar venture to the nec in the world, foamers feel free to enlighten me of a 1:1 comparison, but i'm reasonably certain that passenger rail is a money making enterprise in europe. if it wasn't, there wouldnt be 3 italian passenger rail companies.

So are airlines. That doesn't mean they don't get subsidized to hell with ATC, airports being built, etc.
I bet if you look at those railroad companies, there's a lot in building and maintaining rails, etc.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2018 06:51

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Computer viking posted:

There's also the fairly popular fission/electric method, where you keep the operators safe by putting the reactor (and indeed the turbines and generators) in a large stationary building a safe distance from the train.

How is that supposed to work when the world freezes and all that still exists is one train?

# ¿ Apr 11, 2019 20:39

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Disgruntled Bovine posted:

Yep, basically the train behind the empty cars is too heavy and the inward pull on the curve is stronger than their weight keeping them on the track so they lift off the track on the inside of the curve. It was the exact same thing that happened in almost the same spot 2 weeks ago.

This was a problem with my brio trains when I was a kid.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2019 05:10

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

This is old, but cop clearly doesn't know what a foamer is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRIkmeZS1Lg

# ¿ Aug 15, 2020 19:29

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

The Real Amethyst posted:

From GBS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhFHKtDhns

[/quote]

This is metal as gently caress

# ¿ Aug 25, 2020 06:47

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:52

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Kilonum posted:

Last I saw, 7 dead.

Think it's only 3.
https://www.havredailynews.com/story/2021/09/27/local/three-killed-in-amtrak-derailment-near-joplin/535523.html

# ¿ Sep 27, 2021 22:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Locomotive Insanity: Murder on the BNSF Mixed Consist doesnt have the same ring to it