I had an interesting experience coming home from work yesterday. Some days when I don't feel like driving in the rush hour traffic, I take the commuter bus from Frederick down to Metro's Shady Grove Station (This is part of the Red Line for the Washington D.C. area subway.) Then it is only two more metro stops to Twinbrook Station, where I get off the train and have a 5 - 10 minute walk to my office.
Last night on my way home, I walked over to Twinbrook Station, rode the escalator up to the platform (the last five Metro stops on the northern potion of the Red Line are above ground) and saw the train I just missed stop dead just north of the platform. This was kinda odd and I had never seen this before. After watching it for a couple of minutes, I saw 4 transit policemen walking toward the last car of the eight-car train. I was thinking they were called to remove an unruly passenger, but they were joined a few minutes later by 2 more transit policemen, who then assisted the Metro employees is getting the passengers safely off the train. It turns out the Metro train was evacuated as there was no power to some of the cars (these cars typically run in two car sets).
About five minutes later, an empty Metro train coupled to the dead train and they both were able to slowly move forward.
A couple of minutes later, yet another Metro train approached the platform and all the folks (including myself) were able to board. We moved forward about six car lengths and the train came to a stop. Turns out the last couple sets of cars, mine included, were not getting any power. Since there was power at the front set of cars, when the engineer would tried to go, the train would move about two feet, and come to a stop. After about two dozen tries, the train finally made it to a section of track where are the train cars had power. (Good thing too because not only were we hardly moving, but there wasn't power for the a/c and it was one of the hottest day of the Summer!)
So the next time one of my model trains stops on the layout, maybe because one of the roller pick-ups isn't getting power, I'll say, hey, this can happen in real life too!
Jim
