NS coal train derailment in Aberdeen MD fouls NEC

[Hiroe]

Click to embiggen

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[wazzou]

That must’ve made a hell of a racket.

[motofavorite]

Click to embiggen

(Attachment Link)

Setting aside the killer portmanteau of "embiggen," the first photograph shows a trio of cables rising into the sky over or maybe through some of the catenary. Elsewhere there are some diamond shaped hoops abutting the nearer of the 2 overhead lines (the "OHL"). The farther OHL doen't appear to share this equipment. I wonder both what the cable trio and the diamond loops are for. Answers gratefully appreciated. Thank you!

[nkalanaga]

Given the way the insulators are angled on the catenary for the other tracks, I suspect that that the "diamond loops" are stabilizers for the contact wire, on a curve.  The NEC uses "inclined catenary", where the hangers and contact wires don't remain vertical on curves.  For some reason, they wanted this track's wire to stay vertical. 

Most of my knowledge of overhead systems comes from the MILW, which used "vertical catenary", where the contact wire stayed under the messenger wire.  They used simpler "pulloffs", which attached to both wires, where needed on curves.  They also had sharper curves than the NEC!  The GN, which used the same AC voltage as the PRR, but speeds similar to the MILW, used a combination of both styles, but with suspension insulators like here, rather than the "compression" type the MILW used, where the wire sits on the insulator, which sits on the crossarm.

I suspect that the cables you're seeing, stretching across the tracks, are the "span wires" for the catenary.  The PRR used to use metal beams, but since much of the NEC was rewired some years back, it looks like some have been replaced.  Multitrack span wires are basically a catenary system themselves.  If you look at the closest poles, the lowest wire does go through the catenary, and stabilizes the contact wire.  Notice the pulloff on the second wire from the left?  I can't tell if if this wire is attached to the "diamond loop" or not.  Notice also that the stabilizer wire has insulators between the tracks, so each contact wire is isolated.   

The next wire up supports the messenger wire, and thereby the weight of the catenary, through the suspension insulators.  Again, the catenary is electrically isolated from the support wire.  The GN used individual suspension insulators on span wires, as here, but used regular contact-wire pulloffs to stabilize the wires, with a single insulator at the pole, the way the MILW did.  The MILW, using lower voltage DC, used single insulators at the poles on both wires, and left the tracks electrically connected.

The third wire, which angles down from the poles, serves the same purpose as the messenger wire in the catenary.  It supports the suspension wire, and keeps it level, so the wires for each track stay at the right height.  Without it, the suspension wire would sag, and it would be much harder to maintain the right wire height.  For single-track span wires, this third wire wouldn't be needed.  Since the catenary is insulated from the suspension wire, there's no need for insulators here.  The MILW insulated this wire at the poles, just like the others.

[Hiroe]

Setting aside the killer portmanteau of "embiggen," the first photograph shows a trio of cables rising into the sky. over or maybe through some of the catenary. Elsewhere there are some diamond shaped hoops abutting the nearer of the 2 overhead lines (the "OHL"). The farther OHL doen't appear to share this equipment. I wonder both what the cable trio and the diamond loops are for. Answers gratefully appreciates. Thank you!

Moto, i absolutely love new wordthings like that, it's perfectly cromulent. I've also gone ahead and edited the photo above to best label everything as I know it to be called.

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In comparison, here's the Official PRR Namenclature:

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and a couple more pics of the wreck for good measure:

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[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  Much more complicated than the MILW, or GN, catenary.  Not surprising, with the higher speeds.

Have to give NS credit - they managed to pile up that many cars, under wire, without taking out a single pole!

[peteski]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hiroe, is there a reason you upload the photos as thumbnails, so everybody has to click 20 times to see the carnage?

It is not like that saves storage space in the forum.  Looking at your last post you do know how to upload the photos ad full size inline images. You make it difficult to view your thread. Unless you have some unusual desire to exercise people's index finger?  Or did you do this just to you can coin a new word 

Whoa, Pete, wtf man?

[Hiroe]

Hiroe, is there a reason you upload the photos as thumbnails, so everybody has to click 20 times to see the carnage?

It is not like that saves storage space in the forum.  Looking at your last post you do know how to upload the photos ad full size inline images. You make it difficult to view your thread. Unless you have some unusual desire to exercise people's index finger?  Or did you do this just to you can coin a new word 

Pete, I use the thumbnails so folks on slower connections can start with smaller images, it loads the page faster that way. If you somehow feel like I'm personally attacking you with the way I format my posts, feel free to look up the wreck coverage yourself on google. No one's holding a gun to your head here to make you click on the images. You could have formatted your point a lot more politely, but you chose to be a raging jackass about it instead. And honestly, I'm kind of tired of it. You need to adjust your attitude towards other members of the group (me included), or find somewhere else to be.

[chicken45]

Here's how I would have phrased it:

"I pay $9.99 for 5 hours of AOL a month and DO NOT want to waste time waiting for large images to load."

My name is Tommymanndias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[peteski]

Why does everybody get offended by me asking questions?  I wasn't even being snarky or confrontational.  I'm a curious guy, and I ask questions when something is being done that makes my life more difficult.  This is not a jab -- just curiosity.  That is how I learn.

I remember back in the day (20+ years ago) when we used to make BBS or forum threads "28.8 safe" so people using modems would know that they could open up a thread without having to to brew some coffee, or take trip to a donut shop while waiting for it to load.

But I thought this modem-safe thing was like I said, 20 years in the past.  Do we really still have people on this forum (or elsewhere) using AOL on a 14,400 baud modems (or maybe even slower)? Really?  Or is someone stuck in the paradigm from the past?

Ed, you chew me out (elsewhere) for not accepting certain new technologies, and here you chew me out for being curious about why something like this is being done?  I really can't catch a break. 

EDIT: I guess the snarkiness is in my nature. I was being a bit snarky.

Still, WTF? Honestly, who else does this with their images in this entire forum? I can only think of one other person (and I have also asked them why they do it, and their explanation was different).

[Hiroe]

Honestly, Pete, you're gaslighty and disrespectful, and I'm done with it. You can either make a genuine apology for your nasty attitude, or I can do you a favor and block you. Because I'm not going to allow you to talk to me like this anymore. Your behavior does not help promote the hobby, and it needs to change. And if you can't do that, and make a Genuine Effort to be kind to everyone on the forum, then I'm done caring about anything you have to say.

[Missaberoad]

[Dave V]

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[John]

OK - there is enough crap going on in the world right now - lets try to be civil here. 

Both methods of attaching and uploading to gallery are supported here and are acceptable.  If they are attached to the forum, they get resized to 1024x1024 .. and reformatted to jpeg files with 75% quality.   Thumbnails are an option for the poster, automatically set at 250x250 pixels.   

The gallery feature automatically reduces images to 1024x800 max with thumbnails 180x100

My personal preference is to upload to the gallery, but either way works ..