posted
i just saw on the news that the major power crisis in new york was caused by problems started from the acela. this is bad news for all train fans i guess.
Posts: 117 | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
A rumor spread by a right-wing nut, no doubt. After all, everyone knows that Amtrak is responsible for everything that is wrong with America. The federal deficit was caused by Amtrak. The interstates have potholes because Amtrak bleeds transportation dollars that could be used to fix them. The postal service loses mail because Amtrak carries it. Amtrak's nostalgic railfans are preventing our nation from becoming the modern civilization it was meant to be. And a train caused a power outage across half a dozen states. It could happen.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
posted
Well I will not put a biased political spin on it, however, the news media have reported several different scenarios including reports from Canada about lightning strikes. Never underestimate the news media ability to get it wrong initially as they attempt to get something out there before their competitor.
Today's reports are more rational than the early speculation and it seems that it will take a while to correctly identify the cause of this incident. However, it appears that there have been warnings for several years that transmission systems are not growing to meet the needs of our economy. It does not help that politicians, of all stripes, are more concerned with staying in office than in solving problems. That seems evident in more situations than this one.
Posts: 467 | From: Prescott, AZ USA | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mr. Toy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and representing the left wing nut's position on this thread.
Posts: 445 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
I'm no electrical engineer or electricity transmission expert, but I cannot believe Amtrak could have caused anything like this.
Even when errors happen...a pantograph snags on the contact wire/cantenary and pulls some of it down, that just causes that section of wire to "shut off". At least that is what has jhappened in the past...
MP
Posts: 874 | From: South Bay (LA County), Calif, USA | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Acela as the cause of the power blackout is hilarious. It must have been a joke.
Posts: 26 | From: New York | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, I AM an electrical engineer and thinking any end user of power could cause a massive failure is beyond belief.
The worst an Amtrak unit could do is to cause a short circuit. And that would be caught by a simple (conceptually) circuit breaker. Just like a short in your house is caught by a breaker.
And should the breaker not function, there are backup functions back to the substation which would kick in. Current limiters, which are always in place, prevent any user from taking excessive current even with an extended short circuit with the breakers not operating.
The system is designed to take lightning strikes, even if the ground shunts fail. The wort that can happen is that the front end of a substation could suffer losses, but nothing significant would flow upstream.
Now, short circuiting a cross country transmission line, that's something else!
Posts: 363 | From: Southwest North Central Florida | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Did I miss something? I read the Fox article that Mr. Toy shared with this group, and I saw nothing in the article which blamed AMTRAK for the power outage. Where was this mentioned?
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe it was Fox TV news, with the anchor over-dramatizing something?
Posts: 874 | From: South Bay (LA County), Calif, USA | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
