Whale's Tail of a Story 8

[bimr]

A metro train in Spijkenisse, near the city of Rotterdam, crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks shortly before midnight on Sunday.

But rather than plummeting 10m (32ft) into the water below, the train was left suspended dramatically in the air.

It ended up being delicately balanced on the large sculpture of a whale's tail at the De Akkers metro station.

 

[SuperSalad]

I guess I'll have to rethink my previous stance that STEM should not be expanded to STEAM.

Andrew H.

http://www.MotoTribology.com

 

[LittleInch]

I saw this as well.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ulpture-stops-dutch-train-crashing-into-water

The driver I think was in the front of the train.

I think the escape must have been a bit like that ending of the Italian Job...

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[EdStainless]

Those are over 20 years old and they are plastic. I am amazed that they held it up.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[analogkid2digitalman]

Good thing they were trained whales....

-AK2DM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's the questions that drive us"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[SkipVought]

It's a fluke!

Skip,

_{Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance!}

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

It must have hit the end buffers at some speed to rear and bounce and get that far.....

 

[IRstuff]

Sheesh, for a moment, I thought it was something from a Universal Studios theme park

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[KvdW]

Other angle

 

[bimr]

It must have hit the end buffers at some speed to rear and bounce and get that far.....

Freight cars and commuter car generally sit on bogies (short two or three axle unit ) strictly by the force of gravity, no fasteners of any type are involved. Not sure about this train, but it may have just bounced off of the bogies.

 

[jhardy1]

And the sculpture is named "Saved by the Whale's Tail"!

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

 

[IRstuff]

This picture shows that the bogies, wherever they wound up, were fastened to the train cars, since the rear bogies are still attached to the lead car

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[LittleInch]

These are relatively light metro trains and as can be seen above there isn't that much to them at the front. The connection to the next carriage is a simple central connection.

The barriers appear to be simple buffer type bolted to the rails so the assumption is that they slid to the end as they are only designed for low speed bump stop and the carriage rose over the top helped by that angled beam on the train seen in the picture below.

But still must have been going at a fair speed or on collision the power was still being applied from the other coaches.

The way the third coach is lined up exactly with the other trains is surely a coincidence, but looks nice and neat...



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Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[itsmoked]

I'm pretty sure the bogies are always fastened to passenger cars. The plethora of other safety requirements would be trumped by flying 5 ton bogies hitting sheetmetal.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[bimr]

Bogies are not always fastened to rail cars:

 

[IRstuff]

It's not attached NOW, but its mate on the back end went with the car:

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[itsmoked]

Here's an Amtrak car we were servicing in the yard. Note the close end is jacked up and the truck is hanging from the car.
You have to pull a large pin out to get the truck off the car.

Here's what they look like.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[BUGGAR]

I would argue that the specific placement and strength of these things was intended, and that they did their job well. Otherwise, they're just plain ugly and out of place!

 

[racookpe1978]

Do you think they will salvage and repair the cars, or trash and (wait until later to replace)? Which will become "never".

 

[itsmoked]

Almost anything can repaired in the rail world. When a car is worth more than $2M they usually go for the fix.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com