[Magdalen] Derailment, Please Pray

[Charles Wohlers]

Reports now in say the train was going 100 mph through the Frankford rail 
yards where the speed limit is 50. Looks like it jumped the tracks on a 
fairly sharp curve.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: Jim Guthrie
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 12:14 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Derailment, Please Pray

There are two especially interesting aspects to this tragedy:

The site of the wreck is the same as a 1943 wreck of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad's
Congressional" when 16 cars piled up, killing 75 people.
Cause was a burned-out journal which caused a wheelset to collapse at speed.

Amtrak trains are much shorter of course and carry far fewer passengers,
especially compared to the wartime PRR.

It looks like the locomotive is one of Amtrak's brand-spanking new Siemen's. 
It
should be noted that 40 years ago when Amtrak was replacing their  venerable 
GG1
Electric Locomotive (built in the 1930s, one of which was pulling that 1943
Congressional) they first purchased locos known as the E60s   rom General
Electric.

They had a tendency to yaw side-to-side when accelerating that tended to 
damage
the track structure.  They were supposed to haul trains at 120 mph, but 
after
two derailments during initial testing in 1974,  the Federal Railroad
Administration limited them to 90 mph, and Amtrak went further limiting them 
to
80 mph.

By 1984 -- less than ten years after purchase, Amtrak retired them because 
of
continuing problems.

So there are at least two interesting aspects -- one historical (location) 
and
one related to new locomotives.

Jim Guthrie e