I’ve provided a link to a Chicago Tribune story regarding an urgent recomendation from the NTSB to Metra (Chicago) for the Rock Island line. There have been two incidents at the 48th St crossovers on the Metra Rock Island line in just a little over two years .
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512230299dec23,1,1789874.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Happy holidays,
CC
It’s nice to see that a government agency is making recommendations for improving safety at this trouble spot. Two similar accidents in the same location in less than two years should be enough to make changes.
A couple of things come to mind:
There were some postings in the thread(s) about the second incident that mentioned that the main line in this area was being rebuilt. What will be the result of that? Will this low-speed crossover be eliminated?
If there’s a cab-signal system in operation on portions of the line (and I’m not familiar enough with the line to know how it works) it should definitely be extended to cover the “problem area”. I’m sure a lot of people would breathe easier because it was.
But the cab-signal/ATC system on the UP west line (admittedly archaic) doesn’t do anything for the one crossover that the scoots routinely take. If you have a Diverging Clear through the crossover, the cab signal shows Clear. You’re governed by the more restrictive of the two signals, which means that you go through the signal at the prescribed speed. This is what the Metra engineers failed to do for whatever reason, and a cab-signal system like CNW’s old system would have had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome. (A more sophisticated system might, I must admit.) The cab-signal/ATC will provide very good protection to keep following trains from plowing into you at high speed, but in both of the RI incidents there was no second train involved.