Another Crude Oil Train Derails In Gallena Ill.

Something is definitely wrong with US RR's ... seems like they can't keep trains on the track ... perhaps track speeds are too high ?
 
I'm thinking the train itself is to blame. Oil trains are often ridiculously long, and are thus quite heavy. If track speed were the issue, we'd be hearing about a lot more derailments. It seems most serious freight train derailments in the US involve loaded oil tanker trains, and it's quite apparent that some regulation is needed concerning them. Maybe a size limit on trains carrying hazardous materials is due. Fortunately for this accident, it was away from populated areas.

A pipeline would probably help. What environmental activists aren't realizing when they protest a pipeline is the alternative ways to transport crude oil, which is by rail and road. We've seen how dangerous that could be, and the damage accidents involving big oil trains can cause.
 
I hate to say it but we didn't have any oil train derailments, other than the one in Canada and that was definitely due to shoddy railroad and bad management, until the pipline was vetoed. Is it coincidence or something else? Let the NTSB investigate....
 
Or maybe the anti oil media didn't make a big stink of it until now? How long have we been transporting crude by train? 150 years? What about gasoline or other products far more dangerous than crude?
 
When you see a miles high dark plume of smoke in the distance ... Remember "Trains are perfectly safe", as Trainzers always stick up for the RR's, as Trainzers are obsessively infatuated with railroads. "Nothing to see here, move along, move along, pay no attention to that dark plume of black smoke on the horizon". As long as it doesn't derail in your backyard ... Trains are perfectly safe ... Trains have been derailing for over 150 years, and hardly anybody got seriously killed !

1 http://blogs.pjstar.com/eye/files/2014/10/100714_004.jpg
2 http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.town...98-3163dd1e3214/54f921c687989.preview-300.jpg
3 http://d3.static.dvidshub.net/media/thumbs/photos/1502/1774274/450x321_q95.jpg
4 http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/AP_canada_train_derailment_jt_130707_16x9_992.jpg
5 http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncst...img/Sports/0/0/Train Derailment Fire_Magu.jpg
6 http://blog.cleveland.com/pdworld/2007/10/train.jpg
7 http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1540613/thumbs/o-NORTH-DAKOTA-TRAIN-DERAILMENT-facebook.jpg
8 http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gM0YXQ5mpew/maxresdefault.jpg
9 http://i.bullfax.com/imgs/f52f74c3bb80e9bad3e4bfc981411e0df0f5ae3c.jpg
10 http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pictures/la-apphoto-train-derailment-fire2-jpg-20131230.jpg
11 http://dot111.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Casselton-Eruption.jpg
12 http://bakkenboomorbust.com/casselton derailment 5.jpg
13 http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/...-derailment-causes-blast-2F1RE18E-x-large.jpg
14 http://kwwl.images.worldnow.com/images/6643303_G.jpg
15 http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/10/article-2496753-194C0DC000000578-368_634x388.jpg
16 http://allencosheriff.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Train-Derail.1.jpg
17 http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61518000/jpg/_61518745_jex_1463067_de47-1.jpg
18 http://assets.nydailynews.com/polop...tives/article_970/canada-train-derailment.jpg
19 http://images.travelerstoday.com/da...he-saskatchewan-cn-train-derailment.png?w=600

20 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--oH5ac53Wfc/Tamp1w4BwWI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/uSfsOZ-T4N8/s1600/trainfail2.jpg
21 http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/d82...1404607302000-AP-Montana-Train-Derailment.jpg

143471_600.jpg
 
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cascaderailroad said:
When you see a miles high dark plume of smoke in the distance ... Remember "Trains are perfectly safe", as Trainzers always stick up for the RR's, as Trainzers are obsessively infatuated with railroads. "Nothing to see here, move along, move along, pay no attention to that dark plume of black smoke on the horizon". As long as it doesn't derail in your backyard ... Trains are perfectly safe ... Trains have been derailing for over 150 years, and hardly anybody got seriously killed !
Click to expand...
We all know trains aren't completely safe. We know trains derail and people die. Nobody here said trains are completely safe and nobody said there haven't been any casualties from accidents. Are you even reading what we're saying? Or are you just looking to start arguments?

You seem incredibly anti-train for someone posting in an internet forum dedicated to a railway simulator and railfans.
 
Every time I see a loaded oil train go by, I worry, and hope and pray that it doesn't derail near my house, as if I had to evacuate today it would be totally impossible, as my automobiles are blocked in by the snow plow mounds, and the doors are frozen shut with ice.

One anti fracking meme said: "Just because big shale oil fracking companies polute the land and contaminate the drinking water, it shouldn't be business as usual".

Fracking is a huge mistake for the enviornment as big oil is poisoning the US aquifiers, and without dedicated underground pipelines, shale oil trains are unsafe ... shale oil trains are an accident just waiting to happen ... they can't even keep a general freight train on the tracks without minor, to major, derailments every 7 minutes, each and every day, 24-7-365

Everyone seems to think that fracking has been going on for decades, when it has not, and it is a relitvely new process of injecting god knows what chemicals deep into the drinking water aquifiers. And young people readily accept shale oil fracking as environmentally clean and safe. Just wait until entire towns and cities die, and become huge cancer clusters, with widespread childhood birth defects, all because of this newfangled shale oil fracking.
 
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cascaderailroad said:
Every time I see a loaded oil train go by, I worry, and hope and pray that it doesn't derail near my house, as if I had to evacuate today it would be totally impossible, as my automobiles are blocked in by the snow plow mounds, and the doors are frozen shut with ice.

One anti fracking meme said: "Just because big shale oil fracking companies polute the land and contaminate the drinking water, it shouldn't be business as usual".

Fracking is a huge mistake for the enviornment as big oil is poisoning the US aquifiers, and without dedicated underground pipelines, shale oil trains are unsafe ... shale oil trains are an accident just waiting to happen ... they can't even keep a general freight train on the tracks without minor, to major, derailments every 7 minutes, each and every day, 24-7-365

Everyone seems to think that fracking has been going on for decades, when it has not, and it is a relitvely new process of injecting god knows what chemicals deep into the drinking water aquifiers. And young people readily accept shale oil fracking as environmentally clean and safe. Just wait until entire towns and cities die, and become huge cancer clusters, with widespread childhood birth defects, all because of this newfangled shale oil fracking.
Click to expand...
I agree that fracking should be outlawed, and oil trains are potential multi-hundred ton accidents rolling along our railways. Our rail systems are in serious need of upgrading with improved safety systems and a general need to bring US railways into the 21st Century.

Fracking not only pollutes water sources and puts people's health in danger, but it also weakens the earth. Areas where fracking has taken place are more prone to damaging earthquakes.

What you say about fracking is true, but this thread is about the oil train derailment. It would be best to stay on topic.
 
These oil trains keep derailing, at least this is the 2nd this month. Does it have anything to do with them being unit trains? (Long, heavy, fast)
 
Winter is tough on track and switch's, with heaving and thawing, and roadbed sinking ... also at high speeds, a 7/8" flange is not enough, and it will never be enough of a flange, especially if the flange is worn out of proper contour, and is not enough to keep a wobbling train on the tracks. Flat spots, bad bearings, improper train handling, jamming on the brakes ... etc ... also cause derailments. Oftentimes kids sabotage equipment, and put cinderblocks, car tires ... etc ... on the tracks. I believe that the speed limit on all trains in the US should be downgraded to 50mph, or less, especially shale oil trains. Our dilapidated trackwork in the US is in just so bad of shape, that high speed rail is an impossibility. There are not enough railcar inspectors, and they often miss defects due to negligence, or improper training. One man rail crews, and remote control trackside locomotive operators should be outlawed ! Just because it is a unit train, all the cars still have regular shelf type couplers, and can be decoupled.
 
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WOW.....The Sky is Falling.....THE SKY IS FALLING......run.

Cascade, some of your posts in the past have raised an eyebrow or two.......these are way over the top in a forum of this nature.

The RR that runs past MY house is in the best shape it has ever been and handles unit grain and oil trains on a weekly basis.

DaveL
 
Just because the track in your backyard is in pristine shape (as inspected by you, an untrained Trainzer) does not make you immune to a catastrophic derailment fireball explosion. I guess the trains in the aforementioned links ( in Post #6) never derailed, and were perfectly safe ... or did they infact derail and explode on many occasions in the past 10 years ? The Shale oil companies have a pretty bad "track record" (pun) !

Gas pipelines are not all that safe either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Sjl_x3fs0
 
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ok, so you have an opinion even though everyone is dumber now for having read it. the problem is that you are more spreading misinformation than actually contributing anything here.
 
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Are you kidding me? Fracking has been used commercially since the 50s. The real danger isn't in extracting oil or gas, it's removing the fracking fluid from the ground. Fracking removes resources that are almost exclusively below ground water reservoirs, so there is no danger of the fluids polluting those if left down there- it's simply replacing one thing with another, neither of which you'd want to drink, and neither of which has any potential of ending up there. Getting the fracking fluid out of the ground is the dangerous (and unnecessary) part, as pressure during pumping can easily cause pipes to fail while passing through or above groundwater. If people understood the huge benefits of leaving the fluid in the ground, the already low risk would be pushed next to zero. It also reduces the risk of sinkholes if the holes are filled. As I said, it's substituting one thing for another. If there were no problems before with one fluid, there aren't going to be with another. I also don't get the comment about earthquakes above- earthquakes aren't caused by holes in the ground.
 
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simulatortrain said:
earthquakes aren't caused by holes in the ground.
Click to expand...
I meant that areas where fracking took place are more prone to receiving damage during an earthquake. Those underground pockets could collapse and affect the ground above them. It was included in an article citing the dangers of fracking in California.
 
hauntedclipp said:
I meant that areas where fracking took place are more prone to receiving damage during an earthquake. Those underground pockets could collapse and affect the ground above them. It was included in an article citing the dangers of fracking in California.
Click to expand...

What is happening is the injection of high pressure water and chemicals into the ground which causes faults to open up and then earthquakes this has occurred numerous times now in Oklahoma. It's only logical if you think about it...

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/earthquake/
 
simulatortrain said:
Are you kidding me? Fracking has been used commercially since the 50s.
Click to expand...

And that is precisely when major cancer clusters started, and huge outbreaks of birth defects, and children being born without limbs.

Fracking is perfectly safe, and never ever causes pollution of ground water aquifers, NOT TRUE !

Watch the movie: Erin Brockovich (2000)

It is better to wake up and smell the rotten big business practices, of what's going on ... than to naively sit back, and hide your head in the sand, and applaud the RR's corrupt business, and applaud Shale Oil Fracking Companies, and ignore the obvious pollution that big business is causing, and people who like watching trains, are siding with big oil ... This applauding RR, and Big Oil, practices are just like living near the "Love Canal" in Canada, and saying: "PCB's and toxic chemical dumps are perfectly safe, I like them, I like them allot" !
 
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