Inncident on Paris Disneyland RR

[Bruce R Pier]

http://www.france24.com/en/20130103-fou ... n-accident

This is something that shouldn't have happened, period.

[Steve DeGaetano]

It's hard to say what exactly happened. Are Janney type couplers used? If they're standard coupler draft gears, they wouldn't use a "bolt." And I doubt a coupler knuckle would have snapped. What "bolt" could have broken?

[Bruce R Pier]

It appears that they use a form of link and pin coupler.

http://www.severn-lamb.com/jupiter.asp
Go to the photo tab, there is a pic of the end of one of their coaches on the lower left side.

They have air brakes (I assume straight air) so there is no emergency stop cabablity, I couldn't make out in the pics I've looked at to see if they use safety chains like at Anaheim.

[S. Towler]

I was gonna say, aren't there safety chains for such an event?

[Steve DeGaetano]

Doesn't look like there are safety chains in the photos from Bruce. But even then, I suppose there could be enough slack to have the cars slam together once the engine starts slowing down.

EDIT--now that I think of it, if there were safety chains, the train brake line might still have remained connected, applying brakes to the trailing cars as well.

[Pennyf9Train]

It sounds like the person who wrote this article knew nothing about trains

[Steve DeGaetano]

It sounds like the person who wrote this article knew nothing about trains

Well, they're journalists--not railroaders. Of course, their job is to ask the right questions...

[S. Towler]

Keep in mind, it's also a French news site, so terminology is slightly different (wagon:car, driver:engineer, smokestack/stack:chimney, etc.) but most importantly the story was conveyed and I was able to understand, railroad jargon aside.

[Pennyf9Train]

It's rare for any sort of accident to happen on a Disney railroad

[Steve DeGaetano]

It's rare for any sort of accident to happen on a Disney railroad

Rare though they may be, they still occur.