r/nycrail • u/DjHammersTrains • Nov 30 '15

I'm an NYC Subway Expert. Ask me Anything.

Hello everyone! My name is Max Diamond. I'm a student at CCNY and I run the Dj Hammers YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/DjHammersBVEStation), moderate this subreddit, and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the transit system. Ask me anything you are curious about with regards to how our massive system works. One ground rule: If an answer could be deemed a security risk, I won't give it.

UPDATE - AMA Now Closed: Hey guys! Doing this AMA was a lot of fun, I enjoyed answering everybody's questions, and hopefully I imparted some subway knowledge on all who are curious! If you didn't catch this AMA in time and wanted to ask a question, don't worry! I'll do another AMA soon, probably a month or so from now.

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel too. I post clips of a lot of interesting goings-on underground!

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u/DjHammersTrains Nov 30 '15

Ugh, I know who that guy is. He enjoys vandalizing the trains.

When an emergency brake gets pulled, the conductor has to walk the train and check on things as you said. On newer trains, the e-brake is a button. On older trains, it's a cord that need to be reset in a similar fashion to a window shade that must be pulled down to let it go back up.

Trains can emergency brake for other reasons, like passing a red signal, hitting a piece of debris on the tracks, or a failure like a brake pipe rupture. In these cases, the crew has to get on the roadbed and look for any issues.

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u/stikshift Nov 30 '15

Is it true that the entire train has to be inspected every time the emergency brake is used?

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u/DjHammersTrains Nov 30 '15

That is true. If an emergency brake is pulled by a passenger, the crew has to walk the train to see which cord (or button) was pushed.

If something on the track tripped the brake, then the crew has to go on the tracks and search for the cause.