Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
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Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#2This is not a preliminary report yet, but presents interesting technical data, including a description of how the system works and a detailed timeline of what happened pointing towards the detachment of the balancing cable at the anchoring socket of the cabin that crashed.
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#3A very unfortunate fatal accident for those involved. It is a sad outcome caused in part by the failsafe mechanisms not being designed situations where the cable broke the way it did. I hope these can be re-engineered to overcome such failures.
I only recently learned what a funicular was thanks to the diagnonal elevators in video games series of YouTube videos by sync-on-luna:
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#4Key lines:
> the air brake and the manual brake were quickly applied by the brakeman of cab #1, but that in the current configuration, the brakes do not have sufficient capacity to stop the cabins in motion without their empty masses being mutually balanced by the connecting cable. Therefore, the existing brakes does not constitute a redundant system in case of a failure in the connecting cable.
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#5A very unfortunate fatal accident for those involved. It is a sad outcome caused in part by the failsafe mechanisms not being designed situations where the cable broke the way it did. I hope these can be re-engineered to overcome such failures. I only recently learned what a funicular was thanks to the diagnonal elevators in video games series of YouTube videos by sync-on-luna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2oELc6…
Hopefully that's what this investigation will lead to. Nice videos.
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#6Key lines: > the air brake and the manual brake were quickly applied by the brakeman of cab #1, but that in the current configuration, the brakes do not have sufficient capacity to stop the cabins in motion without their empty masses being mutually balanced by the connecting cable. Therefore, the existing brakes does not constitute a redundant system in case of a failure in the connecting cable.
So, the brakes would have never worked if connecting cables broke? And this specific failure has just never happened before? Jesus.
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#7Totally unrelated but there’s a Portuguese language Cold War miniseries on Netflix called Gloria that is excellent (set in Gloria city). I just happened to start to watch that this week
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#8Totally unrelated but there’s a Portuguese language Cold War miniseries on Netflix called Gloria that is excellent (set in Gloria city). I just happened to start to watch that this week
Watched it front to back in Portuguese a while ago. It is one of the few series available in European Portuguese, most are Brazilian.
I'd say it was time well spent, it is an entertaining and capturing thriller and you learn a bit about a certain era of Portuguese history.
What annoyed me a bit was that it had many small period inconsistencies. Little things like modern buildings, modern cars visible in the background, the Yamaha grand that did not yet exist in 60s and so on. Where it shines are the landscape shots.
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#9If you prefer to read it in Portuguese, the link seems to be https://www.gpiaaf.gov.pt/upload/processos/d054238.pdf (source: https://www.gpiaaf.gov.pt/detalhe-noticias?uri=1665 which has both links)
Re: Gloria funicular derailment initial findings report (EN) [pdf]
#10Key lines: > the air brake and the manual brake were quickly applied by the brakeman of cab #1, but that in the current configuration, the brakes do not have sufficient capacity to stop the cabins in motion without their empty masses being mutually balanced by the connecting cable. Therefore, the existing brakes does not constitute a redundant system in case of a failure in the connecting cable.
So, the brakes would have never worked if connecting cables broke? And this specific failure has just never happened before? Jesus.
Although it isn't yet clear how much the brakes did actually brake, it is known they would never be enough.
So the cable was a critical component and initial findings suggest it wasn't being verified as rigourously, thoroughly and often as it perhaps should have.