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Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26623		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  SteveRG [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
On another rail forum they spoke of this (secretly) yet the videos have been removed so no one can see for themselves what actually is being talked about.
Does anyone know EXACTLY what happened and/or have access to a video depicting what almost happened or did happen or did not happen...?
You get the idea.
Where can I find a video of it?
Thanks.
Author:  Afboone [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Steve, search YouTube for Strasburg near miss. Sorry I don't even classify it as a near miss. Miss communication yes but those two engines stopped at least a 1/4 mile apart. One was coming out of a dead stop from the picinic stop and the other stopped up the hill coming from the main station. Anyone who has rode at Strasburg know they don't come thru that area fast unless they are going back the the main station. And going back to the station they "open" them up on the down hill run to station.

Steve B
Author:  SteveRG [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
If one was coming from a dead stop out of Groffs Grove and the other up the hill from the station, Fairview and Cherry Hill is MORE than 1/4 of a mile away from each other isn't it?
Author:  Schuylkill Valley [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Steve , you have a PM read it.

Len.
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Afboone wrote:
Steve, search YouTube for Strasburg near miss.


It ain't there. Removed by the original poster.
Author:  junior [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
More like a 1/10 of a mile, or about 500 feet apart.

It was an oops for sure.
Author:  Raymond Dewley [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:44 am ]
Post subject:  Time to move on
Okay, lets move on!!! This has been beaten to death long enough now.

Things happen. Nobody got hurt. The SRR has done much for preserving steam locomotion for more than 40 years now. What they have done and can do in their shops is truely amazing in this day and age.

I say let's hear some positive feedback for them!!!! I visited there a few years ago and would have given my rear teeth to have had facilites like thiers for the rebuild I was once involved in!!! They are talented and dedicated folks to thier crafts!!!

My hats off to the crews at SRR for all they have done SAEFELY over the many decades. In this economy, they deserve our support, not our tribal behind the keyboard knit-picking over exactly how much space there was between the stopped trains!!!
Author:  ebtmikado [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Luckily, nobody was hurt, but it could have been different.
This was, obviously a disregard of operating rules, timetable,
and/or train orders, the result of which could have been very bad.
In any case, it's a very embarrassing occurrence.

It only stresses that even though it's "just a tourist railroad",
strict adherence to the rules is essential to safety.

Lee Carlson
former Erie Lackawanna Engineer
current Valley Railroad Trainman
Author:  Martyhuck [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
I managed to see the video before it was removed. I guess I have a very different outlook than most of the posters. Several key points have not been addressed. We do not have a copy of the timetable , orders, or special instructions they were operating under. We can't hear the communication between the engineers and conductors of the two trains involved, nor between the two conductors, nor between the conductors and the dispatcher. It seems to me that the rules worked - they were nowheres near any impact. We are NOT the 'Internet Railroad Police'! I'm sure the Strasburg will deal with it following their policies and procedures.
Author:  Schuylkill Valley [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
When I was taping 7312 coming into the station for the first trip at 12:30pm. I ask a friend of mind to watch my camera as I went to buy a ticket for the train. He was talking on his Cell phone, telling his wife he would be home earlier because they weren't running a 4:30pm. train. He works with strasburg and the RR Museum of PA.
If you want to hear what he is saying , watch Part Two of Trains & Troops. As someone stated over on railfan.net that all I care about is rates and views, that is untrue. What I care about is safty first!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7yShh-Aozs

Len.
Author:  p51 [ Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Raymond Dewley wrote:
Okay, lets move on!!! This has been beaten to death long enough now.
It HAS? Heck, I hadn't heard about it at all until reading this right now. While I do understand it's important not to make a well-established tourist carrier like Strasburg look like a bunch of unsafe cowboys (which clearly, they are NOT), it is equally important to know what happened (if anything) so others could learn from the mistake, if there was one.
And as for the distances, of course 10 feet is very close and 500 feet not as much. Still, when it comes to trains, anywhere within a mile seems awfully close. I once saw an industrial switcher and a mainline freight come within about 2-300 feet of each other at less than 10 MPH each. That wasn't exactly scraping paint, but watching it, it sure looked close at the time!
Author:  Trainlawyer [ Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
I will align myself with Brother Huck. All we have (had) is a video which shows two trains making a meet with one of them pulling ahead and then reversing back into the station track. We don't have a clue what communication did or did not happen, or anything else. I can think of about three reasons why I might have made the move that way.

The bottom line is that, absent what is nothing more than uninformed speculation based on the video, nothing happened except a meet done with an extra two moves.

A second thing that comes to mind here is that the tenor of some of the posts in the initial thread is that because the meet was not done the way that the poster would have done it the railroad screwed up and this is therefor a major safety issue and it is the duty of all and sundry to laud that poster to for vigilance, concern, and overall expertise in the field. The converse is that the poster is receiving the credit based on his perceived discrediting of the train crew.

The real measure of how well somebody performs their job is often not how well they do when everything is flowing smoothly but how well they do when things are not. If indeed there was an error made by one of the train crews (and I do not know that there was) they still caught it and fixed it before anything bad happened and that is what they are supposed to do

GME

P.S. Mr. Shaner, I just watched the video which you referenced above. I am amazed that you were permitted to lean out over the sill during the coupling. Were you wearing a safety harness or were you simply doing it without knowledge of your hosts?
Author:  zugmann [ Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Trainlawyer wrote:

The bottom line is that, absent what is nothing more than uninformed speculation based on the video, nothing happened except a meet done with an extra two moves.


P.S. Mr. Shaner, I just watched the video which you referenced above. I am amazed that you were permitted to lean out over the sill during the coupling. Were you wearing a safety harness or were you simply doing it without knowledge of your hosts?


First to be fair, you can't assume he was leaning out over the sill. He may have just been holding the camera out, while maintaining proper 3-point contact. And no one needs to wear a safety harness to be in a vestibule.

Second, we have to be careful when discussing rules because they are different for different roads. In that video, if that was me on my railroad adjusting a drawbar and lacing the hoses the same way the gentleman from Strasburg did, I would be violating several of my railroad's rules, and subject to discipline.
Author:  Schuylkill Valley [ Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
I was using a tripod. and when they went into the coaches listen close, I told the girl next to me getting on the train, to hold, your going feel a bump. I was holding to the hand rail behind me. I have rode enough trains to know what I'm doing. The conductor has worked for Strasburg for a long time. He also works across the street at the RR Museum of PA. He is also a member of RYPN.

So I'm sure if anyone could tell us what happen with the meet he could.
I feel strasburg did a good job in not having a mager mishap. The guy that was in the Red shirt in the beginning of my video, was standing near me he's the one you hear talking, that is not me. There were like 6 people standing at Cherry Hill crossing.

Len.
Author:  Trainlawyer [ Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Strasburgs "Not So" Near Miss
Gentlemen,
Thank you for making my point for me. There was an alternate explanation for the straight down shot over the end sill. Now, in the absence of anything else - What near miss?
GME
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