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Peter Dougherty

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Everything posted by Peter Dougherty

  1. Understood, however Rule 11 (a.k.a. Rule G in my former company's parlance) is strongly encouraged while reading a few of these accounts
  2. Oh, I'm sure I will. I've said from the beginning that I'm seeing this as an outsider to Transit, but who's had Class 1 Railroading experience as a Conductor and Trainman and a reasonably good understanding of NYCT's track and signal infrastructure. But I'll admit that I have extremely limited knowledge of actual train operation practices. My comments were based on the NTSB media briefing on Friday afternoon, the Rule Book, and basic signaling operation. Like pretty much everybody else in this forum who has no personal knowledge of the situation or is unaffiliated with NYCT this is pure speculation, and trying to understand the various failure mechanisms that could have led to this accident, and most specifically, the how and the why behind the SPAD.
  3. At yesterday's NTSB conference they stated that the light train had the brakes and motors cut out in the front five cars; the R62As here are arranged in two 5-car units to make up a train. The front half of the train was rolling essentially like a shopping cart; no motor, no brakes, just being pushed and stopped from the 5-car unit behind. It was said that there were two employees at the head end looking out the front, ostensibly relaying signal and track information to the train operator who was in the 6th car of the train and making control inputs from there. It's highly doubtful that the local track's home signal (X-288) would have been showing anything but a stop indication at this point for at least two reasons: A conflicting/crossing movement was lined in front of it, and the block was occupied. The very design of an interlocking is to prevent this precise thing, by displaying a stop indication, enforced with a trip arm. With the lead car's brakes cut out, getting tripped would have had no effect. As such I strongly doubt the signal system or the tower/OCC operator(s) would have any blame at all. I hope there were platform cameras recording to capture the light train's actions; that will be absolutely key, in my opinion. To me, it all comes down to why that train was in the station at all, and even if it was authorized to be there by supervision, did it stop at the home signal? If it did, why did it move with the signal still displaying a stop indication? If it didn't stop, why didn't it stop if there were TWO crew members observing the road ahead, both radio equipped, both presumably with the ability to issue a stop command to the train operator 300 feet behind them. Another question I have is if the A division road channel on the radio was clear at the time or congested, and whether the crew was operating on that road channel, or the train-to-train "talkaround" channel. The transit system's radio system infrastructure is essentially a holdover from the 1960s only with more modern radios. I don't know where the road channel's transmitting antenna is located for that section of track, but it's entirely possible that if the train crew was operating on the talkaround channel and the dispatcher-to-train (road) channel was also transmitting at the same time and with enough power, a stop command might not have been easily heard. With FM radios, whoever has the loudest signal wins and that's what the receiver captures; it would override a weaker signal underneath it. Granted this is a stretch, and wild speculation on my part, but as somewhat of a radio expert, I can tell you I've seen this situation occur many, many times, where a simplex transmission is missed because a repeater or a different and stronger simplex transmitter keys up at the same time; the weaker signal is not received. If the STOP command was given and the channel was congested, it's possible the train operator never received the command. But that still doesn't answer the question of why it didn't stay stopped at the home signal.
  4. I've seen this mentioned elsewhere as well, and Rule 2.39(j) seems pretty clear to this non-employee. Unless ordered by the Rail Control Center or an RTO Supervisor, Train Operators operating LIGHT trains must not enter stations, unless they can get their entire train beyond the station platform without making a stop (emphasis mine). In this case they should have had a stop and stay indication at X-288 if the passenger train on 3Tk. had a proceed on the diverging route signal on X-300. Even if the OCC or RTO Supervisor (TSS?) authorized them to enter 96th Street, they should have been at a full stop behind 288. The accident scene appears to have been about 200 feet or so north of the station (rough estimate). I think the big questions that will need to be answered is who gave the light train the command to enter 96th St (and why), or if nobody did and it had been completely stopped behind the home signal, how did it move on its own, and if so, how. Could whoever was in the front car have even tried to wrap on a handbrake as soon as they saw it pass the signal at danger? Would it have helped in any way? So many questions, and the NTSB will hopefully be able to get to the bottom of it. Fortunately the tracks within the station are level and there was a slight upgrade (1.4%) leaving it northbound, rather than a downgrade, which could have exacerbated the situation.
  5. I've gotta admit I don't have a lot of use for Facebook myself, outside of the book's official page that is. But when I posted notice about the contest on this site, and didn't receive a single reply for ten days, I figured interest just wasn't there so I moved everything over to my FB page. But you're right, and next year I will post in both places.
  6. Anthony Maimone won for a great photo at Kings Highway on the Brighton Line, and Daniel Smith won the back cover with a winter night shot on the Jerome Ave. Line. I moved everything over to the Facebook group when I didn't see any replies to this thread in the fall.
  7. Hey folks, Just a reminder that the photo contest for the 2022 edition of Tracks of the NYC Subway closes on Oct. 15th, 2021. There have been numerous winning entries from members of this forum, so if you're hoping your image will grace the cover next year now's the time to submit it. Email your entries to nyhttp://nyctrackbook@gmail.com and put the words PHOTO CONTEST in the subject line. As always, the finalists will be posted here in this forum and to facebook (facebook.com/nyctrackbook) starting on 10/15. Winners will be announced a few days later. While I have you here, I'm also looking for any new information, G.O.s or other info to keep the book up to date. I've got a few things in already but I'm sure there's still a lot more to go. I'm hoping to go to press at the end of October, with books going out in early-to-mid November. As always, thanks to everybody for your photo submissions and your assistance.
  8. Just an update, folks. The 2021 book has been released to print. The PDF version is available for immediate download and the print book will be in stock no later than the week of Oct. 19th. BIG thanks to at least two long-time members on this forum for their invaluable assistance. If you're interested, head on over to http://nyctrackbook.com. Thanks again to everybody here who's lent a hand in fact-checking and correcting as needed. I couldn't do this without your help.
  9. Thanks - but the praise goes to the photogs. I just slapped some text on top of those great images and called it a day <grin>. But the book itself, yeah, I can't wait until this is released next month. I really think people are going to like the new edition, And unlike other "new and improved" things, this one retains the old book's look-and-feel, but makes it all look so much nicer. I've got somewhere between 1500 and 2000 hours of work into this, and I'm still at it every day.
  10. Hey all, As I posted a few months ago, due to the pandemic I decided not to hold a cover photo contest this year — for which I apologize profusely to the many talented photographers this site. I hope it can resume again for next year, but I just wasn't comfortable asking people to risk their health (or the health of those around them) just to take pictures for a fun little contest. With that said, for my 2021 book I decided to use a couple of runners-up from previous years on the front and back. So without any further ado, I'm proud to announce that Anthony Maimone's great picture from last year won the front cover for this year. It was so close last year, and this magnificent image is finally getting its due here. A really terrific RFW picture by Trevor Jensen that was taken a few years ago and submitted for the 2017 edition will grace the back cover. Some big news that I think I might have shared here earlier as well. The maps and diagrams for 2021 (and beyond) are in full color! The entire book was revised and every map and symbol was redrawn from scratch. I'm super excited about this year's offering and that it will be available about 6 weeks earlier than usual (by mid-October). Pricing has yet to be determined, but color production will mean a higher cost, sadly. But I've been asked about this by hundreds of folks over the year, so it's finally happening! Here are the cover winners for 2021. Again, big congrats to Anthony Maimone and Trevor Jensen! And here's a sample page from the new version. It's still not finalized yet and there's a lot of work going on, but this page is pretty much locked in, barring any significant problems. This is a static JPEG file, but the PDF will have many links (over 250 new links added this year).
  11. Never heard of this before. Thanks!! There are plenty of links to South 4th Street, but Utica harder to find a good link to. Also never found anything on the unused express trackways at Nostrand Ave.
  12. Hi all, I've been trying to find a good reliable site that has both information and photos of the disused upper level station at Utica Avenue and other 2nd System unfinished but existing features. I had previously linked to a great site called indsecondsystem.weebly.com, but they seem to have removed all the pictures and info for that and other unfinished sites, and there's no way to email or contact the site admin, so I'm back to square one. Google has turned up nothing except Joe Korman's old site, which, sadly, I suspect will fade away in time. Any help greatly appreciated. Cheers, Peter Dougherty, Author/Publisher 2020 Edition now available!
  13. Pre-orders will start tomorrow (friday, Oct. 25th) at nyctrackbook.com.
  14. Yeah, there's some real talent behind the lens out there. It's always tough to choose a cover from the 5 or 6 best every year, but this year (and to a degree last year as well) it took me a week to make the final call. The tough part is to choose a picture that is excellent from a photographic/composition standpoint, but that also conveys that this is a book about tracks and signals. And in the end, it came down to that very thing this year. Anthony's fall colors picture on the was eye-poppingly good and it came >< that close. Now comes the challenging part. All the edits and new pages for 2020! My annual appeal to folks here, if you have any changes in terms of car assignments, new signal numbers or interlocking drawings, knowledge of new track plant configurations, etc, please send 'em along to me at nyctrackbook at gmail dot com. Thanks to all!
  15. This was a hard one, folks! CONGRATULATIONS to front cover winner Anthony Maimone for yet another great front cover shot, and to Uday Schultz for winning the back cover! I will be contacting both winners in the next day or so with photo releases, etc. This was the closest contest I think I've ever had to choose from; just SO many great choices.
  16. I think I had a record number of entries in the photo contest this year. All I can say is WOW, some of you are amazingly good photographers and you should seriously consider taking this up professionally. If there wasn't already an excellent NYC Subway calendar I'd like to feature most of those in such a format. But unfortunately I can only go with one front and one rear cover every year. So without any further ado, here are the six finalists for the 2020 front cover, in no particular order. I would ask the photographer for each of these to please send me the highest-quality/resolution of these images so I can do full color printouts on a commercial printer before I can make a final determination. I will post a few more of the runners-up later on as time allows. I hope to make the final determination in a few days.
  17. I forgot to add this in my original post, if you're submitting photos they should be emailed to nyctrackbook at gmail dot com, with a subject line of Photo Contest. You can submit lower-resolution images for judging, but ultimately I will need the highest quality possible if you're a finalist/winner. Shots taken with phones may or may not produce a good enough image for press work. DSLR images in RAW or JPG/PNG work the best, but so long as the image can be cropped and printed at 300dpi at 9" x 12" then it should be good to go. Thanks in advance, and good luck to one and all! - pjd
  18. Hey folks, Sorry for the delay in posting this earlier. Due to last-minute international travel and some ongoing emergency family medical stuff I wasn't able to do a full posting about the book cover photo contest for the 2020 edition until now. I sincerely apologize for the delay and the resulting short notice. If you have any good quality photos you'd like considered for either the front or back covers of Tracks of the NYC Subway please get them in to me before midnight NYC-time next Tuesday, October 15th. As in years past, I will select 5 or 6 finalists, do up some mock covers for each one, and ask for everyone's opinion in a subsequent post. You folks are the best, and I couldn't make this all happen without your help—and some terrific photos! Along the same lines, any ongoing track/signal construction projects, track realignments, signal renumbering projects, long-term closures, and roster notes, etc, I'd be extremely grateful if you could send the changes my way before my publishing deadline of Nov. 20th. Thanks again, Peter Dougherty, Author/Publisher 2019 Edition now available!
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