news Probe into Queens subway derailment does not suggest defective batch of rails: MTA official

[Harry]

 

Extensive conducted after a subway train derailed last month do not suggest the received a defective batch of rails, a transit official said Wednesday. An train derailed in a Queens tunnel during morning rush hour on May 2 when a newly installed rail snapped beneath it, forcing first responders to evacuate scores of riders through emergency tunnel exits to the street. The rail was part of a batch of 135 shipped to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority late last year. The MTA located and removed 70 rails that were installed across the system, MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said.

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[Eric B]

How about all these other rails that have been breaking? (like every week).

[biGC323232]

Oh no..Now we have to worry about defective rails around the system...

[Lance]

It says the rails received were NOT defective. Of course, the article goes on to say the section of rail involved in the derailment last month has not finished undergoing testing, so take that as you will.

 

By the way, the Daily News missed a word in that first sentence of the article. "Extensive conducted..." What was extensively conducted?

[realizm]

Bad choice of words. I guess what the DN writer meant was the investigation made in regards to metallurgical testing of the defective batches of rail in question.

 

I would have to now look at the CCC and their lack of oversight in not getting the welded rail replacement on the ROWs there on the QBL. That could be the problem right there. With continuous welded rail installed I dont think the train crews will be having this problem. I mean as far as the train crews are concerned, they were not speeding in that rail break zone.

 

As far as the track workers are concerned, they are incredibly experienced and extensively trained in their craftsmamanship and technical knowledge, I'm sure. So the reasoning for human error may not be with the hard working MTA workers but actually with the Capital Construction Committee and the MTA Financial Committee who Im sure will be looking for scapegoats to throw under the bus as it always go with agency internal politics. Notice that they just cant seem to ever get major infrastructure projects out in time to begin with, as a bad trend in planning and allocation of funds to pay for it. Then again they have to be dependant on fare collection revenue to pay for operation expenses as Albany do not make themselves responsible for infrastructure repair costs.

[traingoat]

This incident is going to found in shifting ballast causing it. What is shifting ballast or the crushed rock under the tracks. You can ballast and tamp the tracks correctly but over time the rocks move on their own by the repeated loads placed on them by the passing trains. What happens is the roadbed is not level anymore but flexes. Someone in the initial incident reported the area where the break occurred was a rough riding area which was the clue as to what had happened. Small flexes over time causes cracks to appear but in the flexing and settling of the bed a rock works it way under the tie and the flexing is extensive. Its like breaking an old metal clothes hanger where the bending back and forth causes metal fatigue and the hanger wire breaks well it happens with a rail the same way Normally trouble like this should of been picked up by the Sperry car but who knows when they ran it. rarely does something like this happen when the track is embedded in concrete. Whether you used sectional or welded rail would of made no difference as the problem is the nature of the bed not the track itself.

[bobtehpanda]

Is this being investigated by NTSB or no?

[traingoat]

Is this being investigated by NTSB or no?

Should be but they take their time with the report as the TA is dealing with Houston do we have a bigger problem at this time

[SubwayGuy]

This incident is going to found in shifting ballast causing it. What is shifting ballast or the crushed rock under the tracks. You can ballast and tamp the tracks correctly but over time the rocks move on their own by the repeated loads placed on them by the passing trains. What happens is the roadbed is not level anymore but flexes. Someone in the initial incident reported the area where the break occurred was a rough riding area which was the clue as to what had happened. Small flexes over time causes cracks to appear but in the flexing and settling of the bed a rock works it way under the tie and the flexing is extensive. Its like breaking an old metal clothes hanger where the bending back and forth causes metal fatigue and the hanger wire breaks well it happens with a rail the same way Normally trouble like this should of been picked up by the Sperry car but who knows when they ran it. rarely does something like this happen when the track is embedded in concrete. Whether you used sectional or welded rail would of made no difference as the problem is the nature of the bed not the track itself.

 

That area has concrete roadbed, not rock ballast.

[traingoat]

That area has concrete roadbed, not rock ballast.

It didn't look that way in the photos which were shown on the site unless the rocks are decoration.

[realizm]

It didn't look that way in the photos which were shown on the site unless the rocks are decoration.

Yes hes right, its concrete roadbed. As a rule on the B division where it pertains to the IND lines, the ROWs are always set in concrete roadbeds, exception being where there are switches which lies in ballast.

 

 

That area has concrete roadbed, not rock ballast.

[traingoat]

Yes hes right, its concrete roadbed. As a rule on the B division where it pertains to the IND lines, the ROWs are always set in concrete roadbeds, exception being where there are switches which lies in ballast.

Then they didn't install it right even with their extensive training.

[realizm]

Then they didn't install it right even with their extensive training.

Possibly, cant rule that out either. However I will have to assume this was already investigated and concluded that the track workers were not at fault.

[Bill from Maspeth]

As usual the sensationalism.  Maybe the batch of rails was OK, but the tests on the actual rail that broke hasn't come back yet.  So there is no story as far as I'm concerned.