Based on no current information whatsoever, I am reminded that a train crash can be a terrorist-type event, as when the Sunset Ltd was derailed west of Phoenix some 20 years ago.
Actually, a fixed axle is pretty good at preventing derailments. There is a famous video of Richard Feynmann explaining how it always seeks the center and is thus inherently stable.
Talgo cars are shorter than your "regular" Amtrak car. I'm not certain which "angled car" you are referring to, but none of them look broken in half. Talgos share a wheel-set between two cars, so the car-end you can see (on the up-side-down car) looks a lot different than a normal car end.
Our local news is also reporting that the train was doing 81.1 mph and that the max speed allowed was 79.9 mph. Though, as a non-train-type engineer, I would have hoped that the 79.9 mph limit had a bit of tolerance, and 81.1 mph would be within it.
Yeah... that would explain it if that's the case.
This is the third major Amtrak wreck in as many years. If they cannot operate safely, at some point it will stop being simply fodder and they will have to have some kind of reckoning. If (and I stress if) it does turn out to be an over speed incident, you have to wonder if the company learned anything from 188.
On the other hand, this is a new line and although I can understand why there are 30mph sections on legacy lines, shouldn't an all new line be aligned to allow consistently high speeds, especially on greenfield sites.
Which is not good, thats alot of energy that has to dissipated.
I understand Talgos. But there is one car, the main one they have been showing, that appears very short. The one dangling off the bridge.
The upcoming investigation will be interesting to read in regards to the Talgo strength and crash worthiness.
What about it? It is a standard length Talgo car.
