Thursday, August 22, 2019

Woodside forecast calls for metal





QNS


Things keep falling apart — and off of — the elevated 7 line in Woodside, with the latest incident of plunging debris coming in the form of a steel chunk that dropped near the 52nd Street station this week.

On Wednesday, Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer tweeted a photo of a large piece of steel that fell to the sidewalk between 51st and 52nd Streets in Woodside.

Now the MTA tells QNS they plan to extend netting that currently only exists around the 61st Street – Woodside Station to protect motorists and pedestrians from debris commonly known to fall by those living and working along Roosevelt Avenue.

“The object that fell reflects no structural risk but is obviously a serious matter. This area was re-inspected today to ensure that there are no other loose pieces there,” an MTA spokesman said. “This has the full attention of President Byford who had already expedited the netting process by ordering a systemwide cost and priority analysis while the four-location pilot is underway. A comprehensive inspection in March found no issues.”

9 comments:

Gino said...

That's a bracket and its also BENT and the rivets have been ripped right out!!
Something very serious is going on with that el, as in BIG lateral movement and torking far more then it was designed for 100 years ago.
That structure is headed for a catastrophic spectacular fail !

Anonymous said...

“The object that fell reflects no structural risk but is obviously a serious matter"
------------------

That's bullshit, The J and other lines in the Bronx used the same materials from the same foundry's and in time will fail the same way.
Byford needs to go back to England, He has no experience with New York's 18th century elevated design's.

BTW that object did not fall Mr.Byford, It was torn off the structure by powerful mechanical force and you know it. Quit sucking up to our elected shitheads and blow the whistle.


JQ LLC said...

@Gino

I think a reason why metal keeps flying off the rails up there is because the trains are going faster now because of Byford's save safe seconds policy. And those rusty old tracks can't handle it anymore.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-subway-speed-limit-increases-cuomo-byford-save-safe-seconds-20190805-45xheuhchvevbgk23yoan7lcvq-story.html

Gino said...

JQ: You are right
The old way the trans speed was done in a way to allow the trains to coast to a stop. The motorman read the speed tags that were set to the inclines and declines. To run the trains fast requires ignoring the old system, go fast and use hard active braking. All this would no doubt cause lateral sway and stress to structure and stress on the track.
If you stand on some of those platforms when a train pulls in line up a point of the structure with a fixed building. It sways like 5 inches, this is not noticed by humans because the acceleration is slow being the structure being so large and interconnected by miles of track. The frequency of the sway is real low, my guess is around .2 Hz. (or 1 cycle every 4-5 seconds) That track also flexes, I noticed they now use spring brackets to affix the rails to so called "new and improved" cement track ties. This may not have been a good idea for old elevated systems. The wood ties served as dampers. Cement ties transfer 100% vibration to the 100 year old structure.

Perhaps this "improvement" may be OK in Canada, France and Germany but not a good idea for New York's 100 year old elevateds
--and that may be contributing to the problem, along with too many young idiot inexperienced European and West Indies engineers in the Transit Union.
The MTA needs smarter, boots on the ground experienced people and less know it alls in suits

-Gee

Gino said...

JQ LLC :
I was on the 7 train yesterday.
It appears they left too much expansion space between the rails, the wheels of the train trucks are falling into them like potholes. These gaps are also causing the wheels to hammer the ends of the rails down making these "potholes" even wider.
Also soft shitty Chinese steel perhaps?
I noted at Woodside station you can hear BANG-BANG, BANG-BANG like explosions as the wheels cross over these gaps. It was never loud like that, you can feel these shockwaves down by the ticket machines.
Read above, The recent cement track ties no doubt transfer this energy compounding the shock to the joists then to the hanger brackets.
If I'm correct the situation should get worse in winter when the rails get shorter.

JQ LLC said...

You should have Byford's job, Gino. That is some eyewitness description. And it sounds fucking scary. It reminds me of the old Rockaway Playland rollercoaster in it's last years.

Gino said...

It is fucking scary and I don't know what's worse, the lies they tell us or this very serious problem.

Byford is not an engineer and the governor was an asshole to appoint him.
Look at his credentials:
Customer services, diploma in transport from the University of London and a "diplôme supérieur d'études françaises"
What the fuck does that mean?

Oh and another snip:
"Byford launched a Five-Year Corporate Plan to "modernize", "transform our culture", "renew our equipment", and "update our processes"
Translation = He farmed the engineering work out to a bunch of racketeer hacks
Update my ass !

Renew our equipment?
All this new French Bombardier rolling stock made in Canada wont last long also, 2X the cost and 1/2 the seating.
I would have issued a contract using the original St Louis car company design to bring the tried tested and true Redbird back, also I would NEVER have placed concrete track ties on these 100 year old elevated structures.
Concrete has been around longer then trains, The old guys knew their shit and used wood on hung steel joists and railroad bridges for a reason.
What a bunch of fucking idiots !!!

JQ LLC said...

@Gino

You know how he is "modernizing" and "transforming the culture" of the MTA? With scanner digitized fare paying and getting instructions on an app the MTA put out. If anything they care more about usurping data from commuters than making their commutes safe.

Can't wait for the next massive hack of this.

Anonymous said...

Gino said... Thanks for the info.
Never knew the things you mentioned about the train tracks.