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There is a Small Business Innovative Research solicitation out regarding a locking mechanism for rotating seats. It states that the NTSB has identified inter-city rail passenger seats which have rotated out of position as a potential impediment to emergency egress. Can anyone tell what cars these seats are located on and tell me where I can find photos and tech info about these seats?
George Harris Member # 2077
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Lance:
maybe it was you that asked this question elsewhere, because I remember it. The key word here is potential. This has never been proven to be a real problem. Rotatable seats have been installed on almost, if not all long distance coaches constructed in or for the US for the last 70 plus years. That means all superliners and amfleet coaches and any remaining "heritage" coaches still in use, mainly in Canada have rotatable coach seats. Rotatable coach seats are also used in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to my certain knowledge. The Japanese even have a powered version on some equipment. All these seats have a latch mechanism that is apparenetly robust and reliable. Unintentional unlocking and rotation is extremely rare. They are normally unlatched by pushing down on a foot pedal under the aisle end of the seat, and when rotated the latch automatically snaps back in place.
As to sources of photos and tech information, I would say check with Amtrak's maintenance people at Beech Grove IN or one of the coach builders such as Bombardier or Kawasaki, Huandai (sp.?), etc.
I would regard a new design locking mechanism as an attempt to reinvent the wheel unless the people involved had an intimate long term familiarity with existing mechanisms and their strengths / weaknesses.
George
Amtrak207 Member # 1307
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The issue of unintended seat rotation in impacts has been mentioned in numerous NTSB reports involving Amfleet and Superliner equipment, mainly in the eighties.
When I rode the San Antonio section of the Texas Eagle (this is back when the train had another section) I remember the crew coming through to turn the coach seats when the through cars were added to the back of the Sunset Limited. They got us out of our seats in pairs, hit the paddle at the base of the seats, pushed the seats around to face the other direction (requiring two robust crewmembers) and then pulled back about as hard as they could to verify that the latch had seated. Also because of this concern, my large group was not allowed to turn any coach seats to form facing pairs. We had to have the euchre tournament in the lounge car. The most current rule I can find is on page 68 of the Auto Train derailment report.
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