R-188s are rebuilt R-142s with the addition of automation technology for future operation on the Flushing (Number (7) Line). Look at the track and you will see the movable trip arm that will stop the train.
Ah, yes, the trip arm. To paraphrase National Lampoon on the Metroliners, “speeding MTA into the Nineties”. Gay Nineties, that is…
Yeah, having the legacy backup is a useful adjunct to CBTC, but really? It’s like saying that the BRS emergency parachute test is an important part of demonstrating aerodynamics…
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The trip arm may be dated, but it is proven technology.
You mistake me. I love the trip arm for what it does, and it is a well-proven (imho) method of ATS.
My problem was with the original post being about modern brake testing on the R188 series. CBTC is the antithesis of trip arms, in that it (in theory) allows trains to occupy blocks that would otherwise be modally protected by the ATS trip system. It is also fairly pointless (again, imho) to demonstrate CBTC by showing how a trip arm still stops trains quickly, just as it did with nineteenth-century technology.
Granted that a ‘correct’ test of CBTC would probably be about as much fun to watch as grass growing in the dark.
The cars were rebuilt, and must be accepted into service again. The trip arms must be shown to work, for the equipment will always have to make movements off of the CBTC system.
Just part of the process of accepting equipment on the NYCT.
Even unpowered flat cars must have working trippers, head lamps and markers.
ROAR