Sad news waking up hearing about that this morning. Thoughts go out to the survivors, condolences to the families.

There was another derailment around there a few months ago. I wonder if there's hidden trackbed damage after Sandy, or damage from the first derailment.

At least one passenger thought the speed was too high. Who is to say for sure? Other than the engines would have the equivelant of black boxes today.

Same as all newer cars. The actual speed at the time of difficulty can be recovered.

Yeah, I was wondering about track damage too. A garbage train derailed in that area a few months ago.

Thousands of CT to NYC commuters depend on that line to get to Grand Central, and the Metro North crews were under serious pressure to get the line open as fast as possible.

In any case, I'm quite certain the NTSB will figure it out pretty quick.

Thoughts and prayers for all those affected.

Exactly right. I wouldn't give too much weight to passenger reports, BTW. People involved in a trauma tend to unwittingly exaggerate previous circumstances. (Or a vibration due to a mechanical breakdown may have made the speed feel higher than it really was.)

Thought this was going to be about the new mayor.

Train derails in New York, killing 4 - CNN.com

‘It was just a bloodbath’: 4 dead, 60 injured in NYC train derail nightmare | New York Post

NTSB to upright train to search for possible other victims in deadly NYC derailment | Fox News


.

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Looks like the rear section of the train derailed far more severely than the engine and cars immediately behind it.

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The locomotive was in back, pushing the train (there's a second driver's cab in the front car). This is typical since they don't need to reverse the train or run the engine around to the front at the final stop.

Wonder if the engineer was texting? Note his name. Wonder if he is kin to any of the old skool Rockers?

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Looks like the engineer didn't brake soon enough. the NTSB said the Train Recorder showed the train was in an overspeed condition in the 70 mph zone and did not brake efffectively before the braked were "dumped" (all brakes on all cars go to full on condition IE:Last Gasp scenario).

I have co workers who travel that line and several said today that they have felt the train "drasticly" slow down in the past at this curve...maybe this means they had a hot shot Engineer or maybe just the opinion of someone who isn't a railroad person.

Curve is rated for 30 mph and he was entering it at 82 mph had been reported from the black boxes. Either the brakes failed or the engineer was negligent in some way. Perhaps pushing the cars ahead of him rather than pulling them contributed to his forgetting the curve ahead. Sad thing to occur anyways.

We had a far too fast into a curve case up here in Canada not that long ago as well. Again it also was a commuter train but cannot remember if there were any casualties.

Engineer was in the front car, not the engine, according to the evening news. Could he have fallen asleep? It was an early train.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Why no automatic braking system if the train is overspeed? Seems like simple technology in this day and age.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Positive Train Control will be required in 2015 (or 2020 if the deadline is pushed back). Think about this, though: passenger trains are already EXTREMELY safe. This is the first Metro North wreck where passengers were killed in something like 30 years. Far safer to be riding the train up to Poughkeepsie than to be doing the same route on the Taconic Parkway by car.

Not disputing the safety of trains, just that simple technology could make them safer.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13