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February 24, 2005
Train accident!
Some of you may have heard me mention at one point that I live in a very convenient spot, public transit-wise. Cleveland circle, the area in which I live, not only has its own T stop but is also very close to stops on two other branches of the green line. This means I can take the D line into school in the morning, which tends to be faster, but I can take the C line back, so I can stop on the way home and pick up some groceries.
The other interesting fact about this is that there is a train yard and repair shop for the green line cars close by - in fact, I walk past it every day. There's little bits of track in the streets which connect the three branches together here, so that cars can get to and from the yard during the day.
Anyway, this morning I was rushing to school like usual and noticed quite a commotion at the spot where the trains turn to head into the yard... It turns out that one of the cars of a two-car train derailed while it was pulling into the yard! There was a whole bunch of people standing around and looking, flashing lights and warning cones all over the place. I noticed a few of the tensioners for the overhead wires had broken, and the pantograph was all funny. They had this crazy thing which was basically a long pole with a light on it - it rested against the overhead wire and clipped to the track and lit up, showing there was still power in the overhead wire. I had to rush by quick, because I didn't want to be late for school, but it was all pretty interesting.
This evening I came back the same way and noticed the train car was still there. I guess it's not too easy to fix this kind of stuff. It's sticking out into traffic so hopefully they'll fix it soon, but it might still be there when I go by tomorrow morning.....
Sent from: Karl Gutwin
Posted by kgutwin at February 24, 2005 10:55 PM
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