I realized today on my commute home from work that vandalism doesn't neccesarily mean directly vandalizing railway property.Sometime between the 3:50p freight train and the 4:26p commuter train, someone placed the following items in the trackway:-1 Bicycle, upright centered between the two rails
-1 4x8 sheet plywood, placed across both rails
-1 Metal wheel chock, such as is used to keep cars from rolling away, balanced on the track.
-7 Rocks, from the ballast, lined up in a neat line on the right hand rail.These objects were all placed in the shadow of a bridge inside a curve and were virtually impossible to see from the driver's point of view. I was riding to the left of the engineer and about ten feet behind him in the cab car. Accelerating out of the Livermore station stop under full power, going about 35mph, the only thing he could by the time he saw the hazards was place the engine in idle and wait for the impact.The train hit the plywood first with a cracking and splintering sound with a large chunk flying out to one side and some grinding as the plywood shredded and scratched against the underframe of the coach.Then came the rocks, causing a vibrating and crunching sound on the right hand side of the car, followed by a pop as the metal chock was flattened into oblivion.Last was the bike, standing perfectly upright as though there should have been a child on it. It was mashed under the plow with a loud crunch followed by some more crunching and grinding as it scraped under the leading bogie, concluding with a shotgun-volume pop and a continuous hissing sound and a few seconds later, most of the lights in the car as well as the ventilation system turned off.The engineer applied the train brakes but nothing happened for several seconds. Then the brake cylinder gauge (I could see several controls from my point of view) slowly crept up past 5, 10, and held steady at about 15psi. The train slowly came to a halt with the hissing sound still emanating from beneath the coach.The conductor came bolting into the cab from the lower level of the coach and demanded to know what we had struck. The engineer told him what we'd hit along with the grim news that the train was no longer able to maintain full air pressure.He asked the conductor to get out and take a look to see if the bike had in fact blown the air pipe.He did so but was unable to find any visible damage. He then trekked 6 cars back to the locomotive to reset the HEP* system which had apparently been shorted out in some way by the damage. A few minutes later he was back and had been unable to get HEP back on-line. He believed that something was causing the circuit to be incomplete.The engineer and conductor decided to isolate the cab-car from the air braking system, meaning that it would have inoperable brakes but the pressure in the rest of the system would be normal and the train could safely continue. They did so, and in the process found that one of the HEP cables had been snagged by the handlebars of the mangled bicycle and pulled out of its socket. It was replaced and as soon as the cab car was isolated (IE as soon as the brake pipes were disconnected from that car) normal air pressure quickly returned.The train was on its way after another 45 seconds and in another 3 minutes, HEP was restored.All told the train was held up for nearly twenty minutes, which in turn delayed two other freight trains.I'm sure the kids didn't intend to screw anything up for anyone else, and just wanted to have some fun, but this went far beyond I suspect anyone would have thought.I don't think they knew they would cost upwards of $15k (yes fiften thousand dollars) worth of damage to a newly refurbished and re-wheeled coach. (The conductor said that the entire air braking system would have to be replaced and the plow and coupler were badly damaged. He also said that if there was any damage to the bogie it would likely have to be replaced as well. That's the figure he gave me when I asked.)I know I don't really need to preach to anyone in here but I just thougt I'd share this experience and mention that vandalism doesn't neccesarily mean direct vandalism. Hopefully the police will find usable fingerprints on the wreckage of the bicycle, though kids rarely have prints on file. (I do actually from a field trip to the police station many many years ago where they printed our whole class, but I don't know how common that is.)*HEP = Head end power, or the electricity supplied by the locomotive to supply the lighting, ventilation, and other non-control systems in coaches. Also known as Hotel Power.Tim Frost
NVTA Subway routes for BVE:
http://nvta.co.uk
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