Telescoping (rail cars)

Cars of the Washington Metro were telescoped in this November 3, 2004 accident at Woodley Park station.

Interior of Washington Metro car 1077 following telescoping in a head-on collision. This car sustained a loss of 34 linear feet of passenger compartment space (nearly half the car) due to telescoping.

In a railway accident, telescoping occurs when the underframe of one vehicle overrides that of another, and smashes through the second vehicle's body. The term is derived from the resulting appearance of the two vehicle bodies: the body of one vehicle may appear to be slid inside the other like the tubes of a collapsible telescope - the body sides, roof and underframe of the latter vehicle being forced apart from each other.^[1]

Telescoping often results in heavy fatalities if the cars telescoped are fully occupied. The car riding on top will often be destroyed by the structure of the car below, leaving very little survivable space (although the physics of the incident may reverse the cars' roles). The chances of telescoping can be reduced by use of anticlimbers and crash energy management (CEM) structural systems.

Accidents where telescoping occurred are numerous and include:

• 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash
• 1957 Lewisham rail crash
• 1972 Chicago commuter rail crash
• 1975 Moorgate tube crash
• 1981 Seer Green rail crash
• 1988 Chūō Main Line train collision
• 1990 Ursus rail crash
• 2008 Chatsworth train collision
• June 2009 Washington Metro train collision
• 2010 Hakodate Main Line crash
• 2012 Buenos Aires rail disaster^[2]
• 2013 Keikyū Main Line crash
• 2014 Tōkyū Tōyoko Line train collision

To reduce the chance of telescoping, rail and tramway vehicles are often provided with an anticlimber: a horizontally ridged plate at the end of the chassis, which in a collision will engage with the anticlimber on the next car.

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  The aftermath of the June 22, 2009 Washington Metro train collision

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  The aftermath of the St Johns train crash 1898 where the rear two carriages of a passenger train were telescoped by being hit at 8mph by a following train.

References

1. Solomon, Brian (2001). The Heritage of North American Steam Railroads. London: Amber Books. p. 101. ISBN 1-897884-75-3.
2. Einat Rozenwasser (25 February 2012). "Un operativo que resultó eficaz pero que ahora revela fallas". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 February 2012.