How do you even start to clean this up?
Hey! No problem. Try replacing the line across Jamaica Bay!
ROAR
Start with a bulldozer. The ties and ballast are now junk and should be replaced. That had to be one powerful explosion to move what is likely 136 pound rail.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve seen track crews make very quick progress getting a main track reopened.
I’ve seen news footage taken from a copter that showed this section of track (looks like a single track main of some sort) and while the damage is significant it is confined to a rather short stretch of track…my guess is it will be cleaned up in a few days at most and the line will be open for business. My guess is they have been waiting for the investigation(s) to conclude before starting the rebuilding effort.
Interesting that the rail nearest the explosion was moved in it entirety. However, the level of track damage is minimial compared to what happens in a ‘normal’ multi car derailment. A few panels of rail and some ballast and in less than 12 hours they will be running trains.
As of Tuesday, 4/23, the line was back in operation.
John Timm
As noted in another thread, I saw a news photo that included panel track being hoisted by a crane.
One comment that I heard was that the embankment absorbed a lot of the blast. Reducing the force that hit the apartment block that was a block away.
Rgds IGN
From what I’ve read at this point the problem in New York City is not track. They have moved subway cars across Jamaica Bay(The Rockaway H shuttle) now has newer cars. From what I heard they were towed across the track by diesel locomotives. Of couse South Ferry is another story.
Thx IGN
The problem was track, it was washed into the bay. There are indeed other problems out there, but the comparison to West, Texas was that repairing a line a cross Jamaica Bay was far more complicated than repairing a line on solid earth.
ROAR