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Transportation Department. He did not attend the 2-week School for operators at Wilmington because the school, which had been established by Conrail's predecessor company, Penn Central, and the 10—day program were eliminated during March 1977. During his employment, he had worked most of his time at OW; however, he had worked at White Plains for about 1 month and had been back at OW for 2 weeks before the accident. (See appendix B.)
Examination of the efficiency tests conducted on the dispatcher indicated that on June 12, 1980, the dispatcher had been observed and a record was prepared of the observation as he transmitted a train order. The report indicated that he complied with the Conrail rules for the transmission of train orders. There was no record of any observation of the performance of the OW operator.
Train Information
Train No. 74.--Train No. 74 had been inspected and its brakes tested before leaving Niagara Falls. No exceptions were taken during the inspection and tests. The train equipment was built by the Bohr Corporation and was model Rohr turboliner (RTL) Turbotrain equipment, an American version of the (ANF) built turbotrain which is operated by the French National Railway. The major difference between the two models, other than slight exterior appearance and interior equipment, is the ability of the RTL equipment to operate in the third—rail electric propulsion territory. This function is accomplished by the addition of four third—rail current collectors mounted on the truck side frames of each power car and various controls which provide electric power to a 150-hp electric traction motor in each power car. The motor is connected through an overrunning clutch to a hydraulic transmission which, in turn, is connected to axle-mounted gear boxes. When operating on third-rail electric propulsion, the main traction turbine engine is shut down and propulsion power is provided only by the electric traction motors.
All the cars of the turboliner including the power cars were of all steel construction and designed to comply with Association of American Railroads (AAR) specifications Nos. C-75 through -82 for the construction of new passenger cars to be used in trains having a total empty weight of 600,000 pounds or more.
The operating cab of the power car had two 10—inch I-beam forward posts, identified by Amtrak as collision posts, (see figure 4 item "A"), welded to the floor. One end of the angled supports (item "B") was welded to the I—beams and the other end was welded to the floor. The forward posts (item "A") were tested in a mock-up configuration to meet the AAR Specifications Nos. 0—75 through -84, revised 1967. (See appendix H.) The height of the sill and floor plate on the power club car was 45.67 inches above the top of the rail.
Each passenger car was equipped with electric-pneumatically operated sliding type-doors on each end and on each side of the car. The doors could be automatically opened by inserting a key in the control panel. In an emergency, the doors could be opened manually by first breaking the glass in the control panel, located adjacent to the door, pushing in a valve, and manually operating a door handle which allowed the door to slide open. Operational instructions were indicated on a tag attached to the control panel.
