A Failed Defect Detector and the Train Derailment at East Palestine

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FlyingPenguin
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A Failed Defect Detector and the Train Derailment at East Palestine

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I didn't know they had infrared cameras check trains as they go by, for hot wheels and bearings, interesting. He rambles a bit, but he knows there was one of these sensor stations a mile or two before the train derailed, and it should have detected the hot wheels which were obviously throwing sparks on security footage taken a mile before the wreck site.

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Pugsley
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Re: A Failed Defect Detector and the Train Derailment at East Palestine

Post by Pugsley »

Yeah it passed 2 hot boxes. The first one should have stopped the train but apparently the dispatcher said to continue at 35 then the second one about 30 miles later alarmed and that's when they went to stop and that caused the derailment.

If you pass a hot box and its malfunctioning your supposed to stop and do a manual inspection. But all this "precision scheduled railroading" BS makes doing this hurt the times and thus profits. railroaders have been complaining about PSR. Not just the crews but maintenance and car inspectors as they don't have enough time to do their jobs properly... which all adds up to what happened.
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Re: A Failed Defect Detector and the Train Derailment at East Palestine

Post by Losbot »

I was watching a video on why this has not really received a lot of coverage and the assumption is that because the same people who have a stake in the railway also have a stake in media. They're avoiding negative press.

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Re: A Failed Defect Detector and the Train Derailment at East Palestine

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Interesting theory BUT what media company is going to listen to a stockholder who holds less than a controlling share (and less than 25%)? Moreover, a fund like Blackrock owns LOT'S of stock in companies. 4.5% is nothing compared to the size of their portfolio.

These are also fund companies. It's not like they are some secret cabal. They invest for their funds and their funds are owned by shareholders. I own some Blackrock funds, they're a big investment fund.

These are very diverse portfolios in these funds so some stocks go down, some go up, but the idea is to provide fund owners a steady return over the long term. If Blackrock feels that Norfolk is going to hurt their fund, they'll sell it. Maybe buy it back cheap later. That's the game.

If you really want to go crazy, Vanguard and Blackrock essentially own a piece of EVERYTHING in this country, so you can play 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon all day long on any topic you want.

I also wouldn't say it hasn't received a lot of coverage, although I certainly don't go to any of those four media companies for my news. NPR has been covering it a lot, so has the BBC, Washington Post, NYTimes, Bloomberg, and MarketWatch.

Nor are those four news outlets what the market cares about anyway. The market cares more about financial news sources, and they've been all over it. Norfolk Southern stock lost around 25%, but has inched back up as traders feel it's bottomed out now, which is not surprising (yeah, since all my income is from stocks, funds and bonds nowadays, I've become a bit of a stock market nerd)

Of more importance to stock holders is going to be the results of long term litigation. Accidents are expected in this industry, and there is insurance, and some loss is baked into the bottom line. No secret cabal needed. Norfolk Southern is a big company, worth $51 billion. This accident is not good, but they'll survive it just fine.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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