The Train in Spain kills and mainly causes Pain

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377113/Spain-train-crash-video-At-78-people-killed-140-injured-Santiago-Compostela-derailment.html

But it's name is not Blaine.



Driver has facebook posts of taking the train to 200 km/h and bragging about it.  Oops.

[Perd Hapley]

"The train in Spain..." At least I'm not the only one who immediately thought of that.

[230RN]

I remember one elevated train operator who used to take one sharp curve in Brooklyn as fast as he could, which would have dumped the train onto the street below.  I swear once or twice the pickup arm would leave the third rail since the lights would blink out.

I used to like to ride in the first car of the El and look out the front door window and the first time I saw that curve come up at that speed, I damn near shat in my pants.  The train gave a big lurch as it hit the curve.  I still have a Technicolor movie of that in my mind.

Figured out another route to get home, using the subway instead of the El.

Terry, 230RN

[AZRedhawk44]

Say, wouldn't that have been 125 kilometers-per-hour instead of MPH?

Terry, 230RN

There's a pic in the linked article of a speedometer at 200km/h.  At 0.62 miles per kilometer, that's about 125mph.

[230RN]

^ Yeah, thanks, I saw that later and edited my post before I saw yours.

I also wanted to add a remark about nobody in the company seeing his Facebook page bragging about speeding.  Jeeze, ya think in this day and age (at least here in the "free" US), the employer would have been looking at his Facebook posts and inquired about this operator's speeding.

And speaking of "my" train's third rail pickup leaving the power rail, I later noticed the flash above the cars as their overhead pickups left the wires.  At least I think that's what it was.

Terry, 230RN

REF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail

[makattak]

Driver has facebook posts of taking the train to 200 km/h and bragging about it.  Oops.

The train is SUPPOSED to go that fast (and faster). It's like a pilot showing the airspeed indicator and bragging about 500 MPH in a 747.

The only issue is that it wasn't supposed to go that fast on that curve, not in general. Someone screwed up, but the Facebook posts aren't an indicator of that.

[HankB]

In one of his facebook posts the engineer had words to the effect of "Look how fast I go - if I go faster I get fired!" which suggests that time he was going as fast as permitted - but not faster.

Clearly that wasn't the case this time, as it appears he was going more than double the speed limit.

[makattak]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10204017/Spain-train-crash-Driver-said-afterwards-he-wanted-to-die.html

According to the British press, the driver told rescuers that he messed up and wanted to die.

If true, it sounds like human error is the cause of this crash, which would be not too surprising as that is the cause of most crashes.

Still, we don't know why or how he thinks he messed up. (I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until more evidence comes in.)

[Gewehr98]

From last night's CNN article on the whole Spanish high-speed train story, it appears that the new high-speed rails were laid in old roadbed, and to save money they didn't increase the diameter of each turn radius to allow for faster turns.

So these express trains were speed-restricted in turns, only able to go fast in the straightaways, and forced to slow down when turning. 

They were forced by two things:  posted railroad orders, and the laws of physics.

It appears our intrepid engineer thought he could break both rules.  Better luck next time!

[gunsmith]

^ Yeah, thanks, I saw that later and edited my post before I saw yours.

I also wanted to add a remark about nobody in the company seeing his Facebook page bragging about speeding.  Jeeze, ya think in this day and age (at least here in the "free" US), the employer would have been looking at his Facebook posts and inquired about this operator's speeding.

And speaking of "my" train's third rail pickup leaving the power rail, I later noticed the flash above the cars as their overhead pickups left the wires.  At least I think that's what it was.

Terry, 230RN

REF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail

I have two facebook accounts, one for employers to see ( and my mom ) and the other where I say whatever I want.

[Hawkmoon]

From last night's CNN article on the whole Spanish high-speed train story, it appears that the new high-speed rails were laid in old roadbed, and to save money they didn't increase the diameter of each turn radius to allow for faster turns.

So these express trains were speed-restricted in turns, only able to go fast in the straightaways, and forced to slow down when turning. 

They were forced by two things:  posted railroad orders, and the laws of physics.

It appears our intrepid engineer thought he could break both rules.  Better luck next time!

My bet is that he was texting and didn't pay attention to where he was and how fast he was going. He was reportedly going 190 km/hr, which is about 120 mph. The speed limit was 80 km/hr, which is about 50 mph. The crash was either 2-1/2 km from the station in that town, or 2-1/2 miles. Even if it was miles, I don't think you can pull a train down from 120 mph to a stop in 2-1/2 miles. Certainly not in 2-1/2 kilometers.

[230RN]

I'm wondering if he didn't put on the brakes as his lead car rounded the curve and he realized he was too fast.  Seems to me it would take a while for the brake-on signal to get to the rest of the train and the remaining "pushing" from the rearmost cars  made the train buckle in the middle, throwing it off the tracks in mid-curve.

I dunno much about electric-trainey-things, but it seems possible that something like that could have happened.  Would explain why the middle cars went off the rails first.

Jes' wondering.

Terry, 230RN

[AZRedhawk44]

I'm wondering if he didn't put on the brakes as his lead car rounded the curve.  Seems to me it would take a while for the brake-on signal to get to the rest of the train and the remaining "pushing" from the rearmost cars didn't make the train buckle in the middle, throwing it off the tracks in mid-curve.

I dunno much about electric-trainey-things, but it seems possible that something like that could have happened.  Would explain why the middle cars went off the rails first.

Jes' wondering.

Terry, 230RN

Like a dumb brachiosaurus?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LFQun4HQj8#t=1m55s

(1 minute 55 seconds in)

[230RN]

^  Yeah, sorta.  (I edited my post for clarity in the interim.)

Dumb thing shouldn't have played in traffic.

[Viking]

nevermind