Who says you have to move ALL the population from one point to the other at once? Do it in shifts, that would work. Best way to move all those bodies around would be by train, of course, because of the numbers involved. . .:-)

An interesting corollary: Supposedly this mixing and meeting of people from other backgrounds and parts of the country came in the Depression and WW II, in the form of the W.P.A. and C.C.C. and the draft. People who had never left their home neighborhoods and counties wound up seeing the world (and meeting many fellow citizens). One would hate to put the country through something like that again, but it did have some positive outcomes. I happen to think much of the "Bakanization" and divisiveness we face today comes from the old generation who went through both the crucible and the meeting of minds of that time have largely passed away or are at least out of active life, and newer people don't have this experience of simply meeting others who aren't from their backgrounds, and finding they are people and fellow citizens, too.

I find it interesting that travel writers, working on the subject of train travel and who couldn't tell a steam locomotive from an RDC, much less the difference between a green riveted Pullman and a Superliner, take note that one of the amazing things about train travel is that you do meet those fellow citizens, spend time with them, and get to know them.

Maybe we have a higher purpose. . .

Here is an accident in Seattle that is not related to railroads, but is somewhat similar to this one. A large vehicle ran a red light at an intersection, crashed into an SUV and killed two people. The vehicle then traveled 1/2 mile more before finally stopping. The driver was not injured. He claimed brake failure. Subsequent investigations reported the brakes were working properly.

There are also some significant differences in this case. For one thing, there were 35 witnesses in the vehicle. Yes, 35 witnesses! It was a city bus. It is also very likely that there were on board video cameras.

The driver was not talking on his cell phone or texting etc. (unless it wasn't reported to the press, but that's doubtful, one of the passengers would probably have called the papers first and then conference called his lawyer.) He was wide awake and alert, or so it seemed.

Several passengers actually called 911 to report the incident before the bus came to a stop, and said the bus wasn't stopping and it seemed to be a hit and run.

The transit agency has excellent maintenance records. The brakes were within tolerances and the bus had passed a safety inspection a week prior to the accident.

What happened? Nobody knows, except maybe the driver. The investigation is ongoing or if it's complete I haven't seen the results. It would be hard to have a better documented incident, unless there's some kind of bus based data recorder out there.

So, what's my point? Even in the best of circumstances, determining the cause of an accident can be extremely difficult. Of course, as any pilot will tell you, in a case where the fault cannot be determined "Pilot Error" always works well.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/ ... kexml.html

It's been a little while, has there been any news on this incident?
Plenty of time for everyone to have lawyered up by now and gone to the press...

Yes, "it's been a little while" is the operative term. Way too soon for anything, except maybe setting some court dates.

The preliminary conclusions are pretty obvious. The truck was out of control for some reason, whether it be it excessive speed, overloaded, faulty brakes, driver inattention, or some yet unknown factor and collided with the train. The crossing signals were functioning properly. No real mysteries other than "why didn't he stop?" The fact is they may never reach a positive conclusion, and may well read something like "Caused by the failure of the truck to stop prior to the crossing. Contributing factors include the speed of the vehicle and the weight of the load..."

The NTSB investigation of the parade float incident, which you recently commented on, took just a few days short of a year to complete. It is quite reasonable to expect this investigation will take a similar amount of time.

Actually, I was referring mostly in terms of the equipment that was damaged in the incident or what the RR is doing right now in the aftermath. I wasn't even thinking of any NTSB reports yet...

The DGVR is currently busy running it's November schedual.

As for the equipment, it's still to soon to know. We're still awaiting final information from the insurance company. The equipment has slowly been trickling back to the Belington shop.

As for a final disposition, it's still to soon to tell, but we haven't found any thing that can't be fixed yet..... It's all in weighing out the dollars of it.

Ben True

DGVR