by Dee McLachlan
At Richmond station in New South Wales, a train failed to stop and crashed into the end-of-the-line buffer just before 10:00am on Monday 22/1/2017. To quote from an ABC article:
“Around 16 people were injured when a train failed to brake and hit a barrier at Richmond Station in Sydney’s north-west this morning, with one witness saying passengers were sent ‘flying like Superman’.”
I would not normally write about an incident like this — except that someone called me to say that they had heard about a ‘potential train incident’ happening before it happened.
Descriptive Words Used
In an interview for SBS a local witness, Noel Keogh, described how…
“the passengers in the train were standing up, and they were just like Superman after it hit, flying through the carriage…”
The ABC quote witness, Brett Saunders, who described the crash as “horrifying,” with Saunders, in The Age, saying the train…
“…came right to the end, probably at about 50 to 70 kilometres an hour, and just smashed right into the barrier… I witnessed all the people through the window; they were just flying through the air.”
Another witness, Kimberley Sullivan, at nearby McDonald’s drive-thru, heard a loud bang. Did she see, or just hear the impact? However, she is quoted as saying, “It wasn’t going very fast, about five to 10 kilometres an hour.”
Questions To Ask
Did the regenerative braking system fail? This is a system which allows the train to convert its kinetic energy into the braking mechanism. And was the sub station feeding the overhead power shut off (deliberately) just prior to the ‘accident’?
Apparently, the driver was using the emergency air brakes.
History of Trams in Sydney and Los Angeles
In 1945, there were 405 million tram passenger journeys in Sydney. An extraordinary number. That year a corporation called National City Lines took over the thriving Los Angeles Railway. Over the course of the next two decades, LA’s extensive streetcar network was eliminated and replaced with shiny new buses.
Similar “pressures” were created to get rid of trams in Sydney. Against public opinion, the NSW Labor government policy in the 1950s focused on closure — and they were backed up by “experts.” To quote Trove:
“Overseas transport experts were called upon to advise the city on its post-war transport issues and recommended closure of the system.”
I have been told the overseas expert were from British Leyland. And after conducting their “independent” report, 1,600 trams were removed in 1961. So did British Leyland pay off John Joseph Cahill (Premier of New South Wales from 1952 to 1959) to remove the trams in Sydney?
Tangara Trains and More Reports
In 1986 the Government of NSW awarded A Goninan & Co a contract for 450 Tangara carriages, and these Tangara electric trains were delivered between 1988 and 1995. Tangara is derived from the Aboriginal word, to go. So after this “incident”, are these trains destined “to go”?
Three independent investigations, run by different agencies, were quickly ordered by NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance. They will look into this latest crash and their braking systems.
A report will likely find that repairing their braking systems is be too expensive. So is it time for billions of dollars to be spent on new carriages?
As a retired suburban train driver myself, I may be able to shed some light on this issue. Firstly, I take note the railcar involved was a brand new release, that in it’self has relevance. I was heavily involved with the W.A. electrification program when it occurred here. The change over from diesel driven rail cars, to electric required a different form of approach to driving technec.
These electric railcars are becoming more and more computer operated and over seen at every level. We too had events such described in Sydney, we also had passengers carried away by ambulance and in fact the railcar involved had been released onto traffic only that week and after the accident, (hitting dead end buffer, exactly as in Sydney) had to be written off because the chassis was bent beyond repair.
These railcars have the computer over seeing every action the driver makes, and if it considers any action detrimental to the operation of the railcar, it will automaticly over ride that action and take action of it’s own. Therein lies the problem.
In the rail industry one of the biggest expenses in operating is replacing the tires, (yes, all trains do have tires, but they are made of steel) when they develop a flat spot from wheels locking up and sliding on the rails caused by wet rails or excessive braking pressures. The constant hammering from such wheels causes major damage to the rolling gear.
Therefore to cut these costs down, the manufacturers decided to have the computer sense the brake pressures and wheels slip occurring. As soon as a wheel slip occurs, the computer releases the air from the brake cylinder, thus stopping the wheel slip, but also allowing the rail car to continue it’s speed.
Worse still, when these railcars negotiate the points, there is a gap when wheels loose total contact with the rail, (irrespective whether wet or dry) and if too much brake pressure is applied at that moment, again the computer will over ride and release the brakes allowing the rail car to again free wheel at speed.
I can assure you, operating such a train with a full load, entering a dead end, and the brakes get released by the computer whilst your traveling at 40-30 Kms/Hr does not help in keeping your pants dry.
If memory serves me correctly, we had TWO such events, though only the one set was written off.
To try to slow the train in such circumstances, we’d dive for the hand brake which was independent of the computer, but only applied on the four wheels under the driver’s cab, so not that effective with a full load, but that’s all that was available. In every case this brake was used in such an emergency the wheels became heavily skidded and required the tires replacing.
To remedy the issue, the engineers decided to dial down the allowed brake pressure and also posted reduced speeds over the points, from 40 Km/ph to 15 K’s which is crawling speed and requires at minimum, 2-3 minutes to reach the siding with passenger getting irate at the time it took to stop.
Later models introduced a fail safe system with barcode transponders located on the track, which sent speed signals to the computer, which then reduced the speed accordingly, totally out of the driver’s hands.
This system worked well, when it was working. The barcode transponders did occassionaly fail.
Hope that give a better understanding of the issue.
Thanks for the detail Eddy
Eddy, I wish Dee would turn your comment into a full article by you.
This sentence I don’t understand, please clarify:
“in fact the railcar involved had been released onto traffic only that week and after the accident, (hitting dead end buffer, exactly as in Sydney) had to be written off because the chassis was bent beyond repair.”
Does “released onto traffic” simply mean “started to be used”?
Whilst speaking of trains may I have a small indulgence?
I am looking for some 1950’s ‘Marklin’ transformers that work.
Please contact Dee if you can assist.
The gc would love you.
OMG Ned you just burst open memories of my father’s Marklin setup in the garage. All HO gauge and Kimbri (?) buildings and cars etc. My father in law still has his miniature rail setup that runs two rooms. You train guys are awesome. The model railroad museum in Brighton UK is a must…
Dee, this is a hot article.
You mention a possible pay-off to a premier by Leyland. Frankly it is my understanding that all
premiers and ministers do not need to be given a special payment or a special threat. It is the job of anyone “high up” to follow instructions; that is why they are there. Most likely every state governor in the US is the same. “”Hey, Mary, no, those people are elected directly by the peeps.”
Wanna bet?
Dee are you being sarcastic when you quote the folks who said “flying like Superman”? It vaguely reminds me of the one and only witness to the death of Adelene Leung, age 8, who fell from a roller-coater type thing at our Royal Show. The commenter, age 17, said “She flew out like a doll.” Sorry, I don’t recall the exact words.
Several people were attributed to saying “superman”. One article claimed Brett Saunders said they flew like supermen. But I think it was only one guy Noel who said it. The descriptions were very dramatically similar.
The more I hear about corporate and political shenanigans, the more you realise we exist in a world of smoke and mirrors.
On that point — whether you like Trump or not, his one speech explains the corrupt establishment well — and that the agenda is not in our interests.
British Leyland. Huh, that ended well.
Ah, I see that while I was in my Campaigning phase in Bama, a magistrate in SA ended the case against re the owner of the Airmax. This Guardian article says other children got head and chest injuries from Airmax.
Huh?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/13/adelene-leongs-death-on-adelaide-show-ride-caused-by-design-and-safety-flaws-court-finds
Eddy`s own experience as a suburban train driver gives an intelligent and insightful record of the details of being a driver together with a perceived taste like me of political smarties in that era.
I have just read an interesting article re tramway closures in Adelaide during 1950s. Could have been caused by similar shenanigans as is suggested above.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-01/why-was-adelaides-tram-network-ripped-up-in-the-1950s/9205768
The above speech by Trump is a great answer to those who lie about his abilities. They say “he is a fool who has trouble putting two words together”. What a load of garbage. That speech, although may be, written by others, is as good a speech as John Kennedy’s recorded historical speeches.