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Philadelphia Amtrak Crash


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I have not seen or heard much about the possible windshield impact damage lately....

They suspected a gun shot but the FBI ruled it out. It could have been from a thrown object but as you say, they are not really focusing on that now.

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Ansaldo is an Italian firm, so its the Swedish subsidiary of an Italian firm installing it in German/French designed engines.  "Buy American" doesn't apply where we don't offer a similar product.

 

 

Ah, so it's less restrictive then I was lead to believe. Oh well, still dislike the hypocrisy of the ruling :rolleyes:

 

Thx Dave!

We seem to have a 'Buy everything from abroad' policy here in the UK at the moment.

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Phil, You’re old enough (like me) to remember “I’m Backing Britain” ! Harold Wilson era?

 

Best, Pete.

But British industry was left to rot in the 1980's and we were going to rely on the wbankers for our prosperity and look where that got us.

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But British industry was left to rot in the 1980's and we were going to rely on the wbankers for our prosperity and look where that got us.

We digress, but the same happened here in the US. Our working middle class has been so badly decimated that I doubt we will ever see manufacturing levels like we once experienced.

 

Many railroads here buy rail equipment from overseas builders as our native builders are not interested in the business a passenger agency or regional freight line could give them. Small foreign builders get the work because EMD and GE are not interested unless you are buying 300 engines at once. The small builders fill the gap. Buy American really doesn't work in these cases, nor should it...

 

Just an update to keep this entry relevant, the investigation, at this point seems to be focusing on the Amtrak Engineer's cell phone use. No determination as of yet, in any case.

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The investigation seems stalled at this point....they definitely are being careful about blaming or ruling out use of a cell phone during the time of the accident...

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/us/inquiry-into-amtrak-derailment-is-slowed-by-a-maze-of-cellphone-data.html?_r=0

This is ridiculous. Why don't they store all their logs using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, formerly known as GMT)? I'd have thought that, with a country spanning multiple time zones, that would be essential to eliminate the timing problems that are discussed in that article.

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This is ridiculous. Why don't they store all their logs using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, formerly known as GMT)? I'd have thought that, with a country spanning multiple time zones, that would be essential to eliminate the timing problems that are discussed in that article.

 

They are private companies. You get what you pay for.

 

Andy

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Tell that to the Congressional panel.

 

"You can't have the info you want because you weren't willing to pay for it in the first place."

 

US Telecommunications act of 1996 - gutted by the telecoms from it's original conceived version.  I was an insider at US West at the time and watched it happen.

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It really isn't that difficult and shouldn't have anything to do with what you might have paid for.

 

I support a time and attendance system. The company I work for has plants across the United States. Every clock we have is defined with its UTC offset. The server is defined with its UTC offset. We are able to determine exactly when somebody punched in or out. The system can also deal with cell phone usage for punching in and out and has both geo-sensing (we know where you were when you punched) and geo-fencing (you can't punch if you aren't where we want you to be) capabilities.

 

Quite why this would be a problem with phone calls escapes me.

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Tell that to the Congressional panel.

 

"You can't have the info you want because you weren't willing to pay for it in the first place."

 

A scenario the relatives of those onboard MH370 will possibly forever rue...

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  • 1 month later...

It turns out that cell records were checked quickly, but the available Wi-Fi, which the Engineer/Driver had potential access to, required extensive searching in the system for possible texts or IM conversations which may have traveled through the Wi-Fi system. He was cleared of using any electronic device.

 

The discussion now centers around the employee being new to the territory, working odd hours and traveling from a trip prior to returning to duty. News has been very quiet about this, lately.

 

TJM

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At the risk of being a cynic, a driver being distracted reading or sending a text or whatever would be a much more media friendly story than journalists having to make the effort to try and understand the issues now being considered. Also, it would be a lot more convenient for Amtrak to have a simple, easily understood failure by a member of staff to point to.

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...a driver being distracted reading or sending a text or whatever would be a much more media friendly story than journalists having to make the effort to try and understand the issues now being considered.

 

Do journos ever make that effort?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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Do journos ever make that effort?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Quite so. Then it’s down to the specialists like the guys at RailPace Magazine (and others) - who understand the issues involved.

 

Frankly, I don’t expect the average TV reporter to be really interested in all subjects under the Sun apart from the “Story”.

 

Best, Pete.

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As a ex driver, the only person who knows for sure is the guy at the controls.  Remember these are new loco's and a lack of familiarity, senority and route knowledge all play a part.  I think the media like to throw a blame game regardless and hope some mud will stick somewhere.

 

Julian Sprott

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