CN train feel off the tracks today and went boom...

S

SantaFebuff

That's So Trainz Forum
http://www.suntimes.com/8584376-417...n-fire-near-elgin-cripples-metra-service.html

Dang-it CN. I didn't order toasty! I think the crews fine. This really stinks and now, of course, everyone is poking fun at CN. :o Nothing to see... lol

I would like to know, other than a car catching a switch, how this happened?

All jokes aside, this is a bit of a mess. Two cars have toxic chemicals, and it looks more like a train collision from what I've heard. Sodium Hydroxide, and Barium Sulfate.

Cheers,
Joshua
 
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Trains are cool to watch ... but did you ever notice that they are carrying chemicals that are forbibben in trucks and roadways ?

Spread or broken rail, even improper braking wth violent slack run in can cause a derailment, fractured flanges, and burnt off axles are not to be ruled out. Harsh weather and sagging track is common in bad sesonal weather.

Railfans never think that dragging snapped steel banding can snag you up, and dripping/leaker tank cars can spray you with toxic chemicals.
 
I was the one of the first people to get to the site at about 6:30 this morning, and the scene was just chaotic. Red smoke was just billowing up into the sky and police lights were just everywhere in the two mile radius of the junction.

I imagine that one of the cars was off of the tracks (possibly clipped the connector to the METRA tracks about 50 feet before the diamond and fell off) and hit the diamond, causing it to rip forward and take the other cars with it. It did not collide with anything as I saw the lead unit had no damage and was pulled way ahead of the diamonds.

I was here shooting pictures just yesterday, less than 8 hours before this happened. It wasn't that close, but I bet it'll look a little bit different the next time I go back.

Steve
 
Yeah. I agree cascaderailroad. I seriously agree. I used to be the kind of guy that was right next to the trains... never again.

I talked to a Norfolk Southern engineer, he said a lot of people don't understand that things can come flying off a train like nothing and that you need to be careful... most people aren't. This video is a good reminder about how debris get's picked up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMW8GEMx1EA
(@ 41 seconds on the right side of the screen)

This one is great to show how easy a car can pick a switch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkZPZpeaQM

Yes, I do realize how harmful the chemicals are. I actually sometimes write down every UN number on each car and then go and look up the chemicals. I couldn't imagine a train derailing, oh god, at when the tracks go 4 wide just past downtown Kankakee towards Gilman on the local line. They have tons of explosive-flammable tankers sitting right off the main! Imagine if one of the 45-mph trains picked that switch! Right outside a petrol-chemical plant too. So many things can go wrong, which is why I always now keep my distance to not only give myself a chance to react but to live if a train does go off the rails.

I sometimes have like really scary imaginations of what could have happened to me when I used to go right next to the track and something like this could have happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Nq632eV6I

I used to railfan like this:
@ 3:14 you can see the chemical plant I mentioned earlier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAOP9cRCc7Q

Now, I railfan like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDEpn-lX5Kg

Cheers,
Joshua
 
Like it or not these toxic (and downright seriously dangerous chemicals) must be transported. I suspect via rail is safer then via truck but neither is without hazzards.

Please keep in mind nuclear weapons are often transported by truck tho they can't possibly go boom (nuclear-wise) and the side of the truck most certainly does not have "Nukes-R Us" on the side, lol.

On a railroad potential problems certainly exist but most are few and far betweeen. A nuke-in-a-truck is almost constantely is range of potential danger and I don't mean terrorists (think little old ladies who shoud have had thier license revoked years ago). I live in South Florida and you have no idea what driving conditions are during snow-bird season (think bumper cars at the fair).

BTW: if its snowbird season - why can't we shoot them, lol.

Ben
 
Mmhmm. I don't complain about it. I'd rather see them on a regulated and serious type of transport that is fast, efficient, and safer than having it going 65mph next to someone who is busy texting their friends because their lonely.

Cheers,
Joshua
 
I too changed my railfanning position after I saw strapping mow the grass down along the tracks in Andover, MA. I posted about this here in another post. The effect was like a giant weed whacker going along and ripping down the weeds, small trees, and bushes. This didn't count the ballast that went flying along with it, along with the dust, and probably poison ivy bits as well. The biggest devastation happened when the flailing strapping ripped up the front of some parked cars. Granted the cars shouldn't have been parked there, but still they were quite a bit wrecked afterwards.

And... This train was going maybe 20 - 40 mph through the area!

John
 
OK you chemistry majors

A well known railway in the western USA runs through my town with tanker cars of molten sulfur and others with anhydrous ammonia. Fortunately they go pretty slow. I wonder what kind of chemical reaction that would create if there were an incident.
 
In Falls yard they shoved tank cars back, and three derailed, punctured and overturned down into the Schuylkill River, Hydrochloric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide and Corn Syrup mixed together ... an unknown chemical compound !

The EPA had the entire portion of the yard torn up, dug out, transfered to a burn facility ... today 8, 7, & 6 tracks are not connected, and are still not in place where the chemical spill was.
 
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