Yellow Line’s wheel deal: MRT mishap takes a detour, hits taxi, driver escapes unscathed near Bangkok

[webfact]

After the MRT Pink Line mishap a week ago, another train accident was reported yesterday when the wheel of an MRT Yellow Line carriage fell off and hit a taxi on Thepharak Road in Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok. Fortunately, the driver escaped any injury.

Samrong Nuea Police Station officers received a report of the accident at 6.30pm yesterday, January 2, and rushed to investigate the scene. The taxi car, a yellow and green Toyota Altis, was seen parked 100 metres away from the Si Thepha MRT Station. Its bonnet bore the damage from the spiralling wheel, which was found 20 metres away from the car.

 

Fortunately, the taxi driver, 73 year old Wirat Khumsub, was not injured in the accident. Wirat told police that he and his passenger were travelling to Thepharak district in Samut Prakarn province when the wheel collided with his car.

Wirat said he was shocked and startled but pulled himself together and gradually parked the car in the left lane. He went out to check what had hit his vehicle and found it was the monorail wheel, so he hurried to report it to the police.

 

by Petch Petpailin 

Photo via Facebook/ Nonthawat Wisutthipat

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2024-01-03

 

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[brianthainess]

A MISSHAP that's a gross understatement. And from what I understand made from Chinese parts. 

[cracker1]

I think the Monorail has only been running about six months, so this sort of incident should not happen.

[PETERTHEEATER]

The rolling stock is the Bombardier Innovia 300 as used in other cities throughout the world. It is, however, manufactured in China.

But who makes the wheel bearings? For the complete rubber-tyred guide wheel to fall off the entire bearing must must have collapsed. 

They need to investigate this seriously and carry out checks on all installed bogies before continuing to run the trains.

[tubby johnson]

As I posted elsewhere, the Yellow Line and brand-new Pink Line monorails need to be shut down for months to conduct a full inspection, replace any faulty junk parts bought off Lazada, and fire the crony engineers and managers who got their cosy jobs thanks to nepotism.

 

Clean out the rot!

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

the wheel of an MRT Yellow Line carriage fell off and hit a taxi

 Absolutely unbelievable lack of maintenence and safety. This could have been much more serious if there were many more people and vehicles on the ground below, and if the carriage had been dislodged.

[n00dle]

2 hours ago, brianthainess said:

A MISSHAP that's a gross understatement. And from what I understand made from Chinese parts. 

 

Please explain the relevance of this remark.

[n00dle]

46 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

For the complete rubber-tyred guide wheel to fall off the entire bearing must must have collapsed. 

and if the wheel itself were improperly affixed?

 

you offer specultation, not facts.

[chippendale]

7 minutes ago, n00dle said:

 

Please explain the relevance of this remark.

Chinese business ethics. Nuff said.

[Liverpool Lou]

6 minutes ago, n00dle said:

53 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

For the complete rubber-tyred guide wheel to fall off the entire bearing must must have collapsed. 

and if the wheel itself were improperly affixed?

 

you offer specultation, not facts.

So do you!..."and if the wheel itself were improperly affixed?"

[PETERTHEEATER]

36 minutes ago, n00dle said:

and if the wheel itself were improperly affixed?

 

you offer specultation, not facts.

True. The guide wheel is one of four mounted vertically on a bogie secured by a stub axle.

If the axle is still in position complete with bottom nut and plate thewheel could only fall off if the entire bearing disintegrated. If the bottom nut and plate loosed, unscrewed and fell off the wheel would follow.

Since the reports mention bearing I assume the wheel attachments are in place.

What do you think?

 

 

 

[BritScot]

25 minutes ago, n00dle said:

 

Please explain the relevance of this remark.

Really! The remark is very relevant.  I understood and totally agree. 

[brianthainess]

37 minutes ago, n00dle said:

and if the wheel itself were improperly affixed?

 

you offer specultation, not facts.

I suggest you look at the vid on BP or even god forbid, the FULL STORY

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

But who makes the wheel bearings?

Well I think the country that begins with C and it an't Cuba or Canada 

[PETERTHEEATER]

1 minute ago, brianthainess said:

Well I think the country that begins with C and it an't Cuba or Canada 

I was wondering whether the wheel producer also makes the bearing in-house. Unlikely. Probably 'bought in'

It matters when apportioning blame. Bombardier is a large and trusted company and would ensure their Chinese production company manufacture to a high standard.

Speculation I know but I expect the whole incident to die with little or no media follow-up reports.

[brianthainess]

25 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

I was wondering whether the wheel producer also makes the bearing in-house. Unlikely. Probably 'bought in'

It matters when apportioning blame. Bombardier is a large and trusted company and would ensure their Chinese production company manufacture to a high standard.

Speculation I know but I expect the whole incident to die with little or no media follow-up reports.

Can't upset the Chinese can we, it looks pretty obvious to me they used the cheapest ones available, as I said I see no grease/oil seal and inside the hub is completely void of any grease, good engineering practice is to always put some grease inside a hub whether using pre-greased bearings or not, and if not pre-greased, the only way to properly grease a bearing, is to push grease into it with your hands preferably, until it comes out both sides. well that's how I was trained & IME.

[stoner]

i posted a week or so ago about this line and how it felt like it was built by a bunch of 8th graders doing their local science project. no surprise at all this happened and now will wait for a major malfunction or break down in the coming months. stay tuned. 

 

this is not a mishap this is a major problem. i am positive they have a migrant worker up fixing it now. 

[The Old Bull]

4 hours ago, n00dle said:

 

Please explain the relevance of this remark.

Chinese make everything between top of the line and junk. Blame the greedy retailers that stock junk and sell it as top of the line.

[brianthainess]

16 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

True. The guide wheel is one of four mounted vertically on a bogie secured by a stub axle.

If the axle is still in position complete with bottom nut and plate thewheel could only fall off if the entire bearing disintegrated. If the bottom nut and plate loosed, unscrewed and fell off the wheel would follow.

Since the reports mention bearing I assume the wheel attachments are in place.

What do you think?

 

 

 

I can't quite figure out which one fell off, whether it was the big one #30 or one of the smaller ones #32a or #36, all bearings must be pre-loaded when doing up the nuts, the nuts should have some locking device like a split pin and castle nut, locking tab, two nuts locked against each other, or nylok nuts (only good up to 120c temp. I would say it was a smaller one becoz if the large wheel then it would need the bracket #24 to break. My conclusion Not enough grease, no grease seals fitted, no pre-load (without a pre-load the bearings run loose), nuts not locked in place. Taper bearings need tightening/checked on a regulars basis, (same as front wheel bearings on most trucks).  ALL OF THE ABOVE 

 

[Digitalbanana]

I don't understand all this talk about grease and ball bearings. Things wear out eventually.

 

Surely the key problem with the new monorails is that there are no safety barriers in place anywhere along the monorail lines. Items can fall off anytime, and they will again, with vehicles and pedestrians below always in the direct line of fire until something is done about it.

[brianthainess]

Ha Ha Ha So I was right, just heard a report on Fab 103 fm, a split pin could have prevented it. 

[StayinThailand2much]

On 1/3/2024 at 12:47 PM, brianthainess said:

A MISSHAP that's a gross understatement. And from what I understand made from Chinese parts. 

 

I finally understand why those BTS and MRT fares are relatively high (compared to other places in Asia). They need to factor in, and save up for potential Tofu-dreg events of any of their Chinese-made equipment.

[PETERTHEEATER]

I'm back home in UK now and seven hours behind Thai news.

Can I assume that it has been determined the wheel had not been correctly locked following installation?

[Mr Meeseeks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg5rfBfWT4&ab_channel=MarineAdmiralJunior

[Mr Meeseeks]

On 1/3/2024 at 3:02 PM, Burma Bill said:

Absolutely unbelievable lack of maintenence and safety.

 

Welcome to Thailand. 

 

They simply do not understand nor care about inspections, testing, preventative maintenance, risk assessments or failure mode effects analysis.

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

I don't understand all this talk about grease and ball bearings. Things wear out eventually.

 

Surely the key problem with the new monorails is that there are no safety barriers in place anywhere along the monorail lines. Items can fall off anytime, and they will again, with vehicles and pedestrians below always in the direct line of fire until something is done about it.

Bearings correctly fitted and greased (and adjusted) last for many years, these are not "Ball bearings" they are tapered roller bearings. If you own any vehicle when was the last time the bearings wore out, the only bearings I've had wear out were on a 22yr old car on a rear hub. Even then it didn't fall off but was picked up on an inspection (Not at a Transport office though) at an inspection shop.

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

I'm back home in UK now and seven hours behind Thai news.

Can I assume that it has been determined the wheel had not been correctly locked following installation?

According to Fab 103 FM, there are not even split pins fitted, so yes not locked in anyway shape or fashion. 

[Digitalbanana]

On 1/4/2024 at 4:17 PM, brianthainess said:

last for many years,

It's not just bearings, a conductor line fell on traffic a week or two before. There needs to be safety barriers for anything that has the potential to fall.

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, Digitalbanana said:

It's not just bearings, a conductor line fell on traffic a week or two before. There needs to be safety barriers for anything that has the potential to fall.

That would be the whole concrete construction, did we ever find out why the rail fell off, bolts with no shake-proof washers/spring washers, or nylok nuts.

unfit, substandard fixings? to the concrete? instead of through it, Who knows what was used, plastic raw plugs ? instead of steel? A wobblily wheel?  that excuse about some wood left on it really doesn't cut with me.