[PRCo] Re: METRORAIL DISASTER

[Ken and Tracie]

Check out both the photo and caption at the top of page 372.  Cars of 
virtually identical dimensions, one steel, the other wooden, both equipped 
with identical anticlimbers.

The story as I've heard it many times:

Front car was backing up slowly, the following motorman was estimated to be 
heading down the hill at 70 mph before seeing the backing car and throwing 
the brakes into full emergency.

The Nachod signal did not change to "red" when the backing car re-entered 
the previous block, so the following car's motorman saw a signal to 
continue.

Though the cars appeared identical to a casual observer, the wooden car, 
with steel sheathing on its sides was essentially a wooden gondola with a 
roof..  The anticlimbers did not matter.

K.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phillip Clark Campbell" :

> Photos reveal one of the cars  'appeared'  to go airborne over the other 
> train with the car essentially sitting on the roof of the other car. 
> 'Telescoping'  generally results in the floor of one car riding over the 
> floor of another;  there can be worse carnage in such situations.  To 
> borrow a term from those who model transit,  telescoping would look like 
> 'literal kitbashing'  --  the ramming of two models together to produce 
> one.  The photo on pg.371 of  The Interurban Era  is an example of such.
>
> It is already known that the Rohr cars  'could'  telescope in an accident. 
> Do these cars have anticlimbers?  'If'  the anticlimbers engaged 
> successfully,  would the impact cause each car to telescope upon itself? 
> This begs basic structural integrity doesn't it.