ATCS feed

[NW Mailing List]

As Nathan noted, malicious tampering with a switch is not an unknown
occurrence.   Government agencies investigated two, and maybe  more,
instances involving switch sabotage on N&W.
 
On April 21, 1932,  No. 4 Eng 133 entered the middle track at Union,  Ohio
and overturned.  The ICC concluded that someone familiar with track  work
had disconnected the switch rods,  moved the switch rail to the  south rail 
and
had enough intelligence to realize that if the north rail was disturbed, it  
would
shunt the signal.  Maybe, as Jimmy wrote,  this was one of those  "unknown
demented souls that decided to test his ingenuity".   Not for  sure, but I
understood this act was committed by an employee of the post office.  Maybe
someone in Sciotoland knows more.
 
In the mid 70's, DC-11 moving across the Gary District (dark territory)  at
night was diverted into an elevator track, killing the head-end crew.   At 
that time,
N&W had a Derailment Committee (no, its purpose wasn't to make  derailments,
but to find the cause) comprised of one member each from the  Transportation, 
Mechanical, and Motive Power Departments.  The boss represented the  
Transporta-
tion Department and on his return, he gave a vivid description of how the  
fireman
was found.  Federal investigators combed the area and the  only suspicious 
item
they found was a match pad.  Six month later, hearsay was that there  were
several suspects under observation in Miami.  To date, I know of no  arrests 
in
the case,  nor in the sabotage of SP's "City of San Francisco" on  August 12, 
1939,
nor the 1996 wreck of Amtrak's "Sunset Limited"  in the Gila Bend  Mountains.
 
If ATCS can prevent such instances, install it.  But if a  "demented soul"  
could
sharp-shoot the system,  will he ever be brought to justice ?
                                                                      Harry 
Bundy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20070125/e6bb7054/attachment.html