NYC Subway Fire Destroys Signaling Equipment

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A fire that began with a homeless person trying to keep warm by igniting wood and refuse in a shopping cart has crippled two of the city's subway lines, which might not be restored to normal capacity for three to five years, officials said today.

The Sunday afternoon blaze in Lower Manhattan was described as the worst damage to subway infrastructure since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It gutted a locked room that is no larger than a kitchen but contains some 600 relays, switches and circuits that transmit vital information about train locations.

"This is a very significant problem, and it's going to go on for quite a while," said the president of New York City Transit, Lawrence G. Reuter. He estimated that it would take "several millions of dollars and several years" to reassemble and test the intricate network of custom-built switch relays on which the two lines rely.

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He estimated that it would take "several millions of dollars and several years" to reassemble and test the intricate network of custom-built switch relays on which the two lines rely.
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We were talking about this fire, and one of our customers made a comment that it would take two weeks to restore, if it was a private business.

Not to start a war here, but local 3 will probably take about three years to do the first 5% of the job then when they are about to fine them for not being done they will work 7 days for about three weeks and finish the job. I have worked on numerous projects with local 3 and their guys, and gals, are normally capable but very unmotivated. You also have to figure in the bs time it taked for local government to do anything.

... it would take "several millions of dollars and several years" to reassemble and test the intricate network of custom-built switch relays on which the two lines rely.

This guy is off his rocker. First off this junk was probably 75 years old so why would anybody want to replicate it? There is probably nobody still alive who could do it anyway. I'm sure it could be done today with a system the size of a breadbox. Apparently this controls only a 1/4 mile of track!

Telephone central offices get destroyed all the time. In terms of intricacy they make this look like a childs toy yet they are replaced in a matter of days or weeks.

-Hal

The news can really come too quickly today for us "have to know it now" nation.
It seems after further investigation (and possibly less news worthy than yesterdays news, in other words will sell less newspapers), that the fire may not have been started by a homeless person. They are also saying that it may take 9 months to get this operational.

How could they have estimated the time it would take only a few hours after the fire actually occurred? And this is definitely intricate work.

Pierre