NY rail inspections

New York / March 19, 2007

Federal Railroad Administration Brings Special Train to Look at New York Railways

The Federal Railroad Administration has brought a high-tech tool to New York State to scan the rails and see how they stand up to federal safety standards.

That high-tech tool is a specially equipped train car called the T16 – which will look at hundreds of miles of track across New York in the next couple of days.

The federal railroad administrator, who lives not far from the latest derailment, moved this inspection up because of the incident, and says this is just one part of making the rails safer.

Within the monitors inside and outside a sleek, reconfigured Amtrak train car, millions of calculations are being made to ensure the safety of the rails that carry freight and passenger trains through New York – in this case, specifically between Albany and Schenectady.

Joseph Boardman/Federal Railroad Administrator: “This is a unique piece of rail safety equipment that measures whether the two tracks are level and if the width between the tracks is acceptable to avoid derailments.”

Full story here

Funny the T16 should come up. I was just reading about it yesterday.

It was former Metroliner 803, rebuilt as a cab car 9642 for Atlantic City service. It led the first revenue trip over the line on May 28, 1989.

Here’s a picture of it as #803

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=194363

Here’s one as a freshly minted cab car on the first AC line trip:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=20493

Here’s the FRA blurb on the conversion to TGC:

http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/Research/rr01_01.pdf

And, here’s a picture of the T16 in operation:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=156079

If the public only knew, they would be asking CSX to run their own car with FRA people on board.