The local (or, would be local if Connecticut had train service beyond the
$$$ Gold Coast) commuter trains are paired, self-driven electric units.
No driver (or whatever the railfans call them) units.


On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, Snow wrote:

> The local passenger commuter trains here have engines at both ends, so it
> always has one engine at the front pulling and the other at the back
> pushing..
>
> Snow...
>
> "Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
> ...
>> The reason the train derailed so easily was that it was being pushed. If
>> the
>> engine was in the front, and was pulling the train, by all accounts it
>> would
>> have remained on the track The second train was being pulled by its
>> engine,
>> and it did remain on the track, having said that, the last car on the
>> second
>> train did come off the track, indeed it came off the train.
>>
>> The car of the train that hit the Jeep got pushed sideways by the impact,
>> and since it was being pushed from behind by the locomotive, it left the
>> track. It went to the side where another freight locomotive was parked.
>> When
>> it hit that engine, then the car went completely sideways. In the mean
>> time,
>> due to the schedule, another train was coming from the opposite direction
>> at
>> the same time. As the first train continued down the track, getting worse
>> by
>> the second, it began to rub on the second train. Eventually the fully
>> sideways car of the first train caused the last car of the second train to
>> completely leave the tracks, and become disconnected from its train. After
>> all of that, the parked freight locomotive was tipped over and its fuel
>> spilled out and ignited.
>>
>> As a result of this accident, there might be a new rule for trains to
>> always
>> be pulled from the front and never pushed from the back. I don't know how
>> this can be accomplished because most commuter trains have no means of
>> turning around. My guess is that they will keep engines on sidings, and
>> pull
>> the train the parked engine, then drive that engine (pointed the opposite
>> direction) to the back of the train, and swap engines. This will
>> efffectively turn the train around without having to put in a turn table.
>> It
>> will require lots of new engines for the commuter train systems.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Brian Foster" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Guy in LA used one to derail a comuter train. Killed 11 people and
>>> injured
>>> 180. That's not very cool.
>>>
>>> But who would of thought a Jeep could derail a train?
>>>
>>> I would of thought it would look like a soda can after it was run over by
>> a
>>> train.....
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

--
"I defer to your plainly more vivid memories of topless women with
whips....r"
R. H. Draney recalls AFU in the Good Old Days.