Three derailments in two weeks

F

Firefighterdan

343 NEVER FORGET
In the town next to where I live, there has been three train derailments in two weeks involving grain cars headed for the Port of Grays Harbor. Grain has been coming here for the past five years or so. Why now, what went wrong with our rail system recently. The port is trying get Crude by rail, and the environmentalists are having a field day with these derailments.

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This could be due to the weather which can affect the tracks. Derailments are more common in the spring, I noticed around my area as well. That is unless someone has been tampering with the tracks to prove a point about the crude oil.

John
 
Every 7 1/2 minutes someone is killed in a car crash (in the US) ... the same statistic is true of the frequency of major/minor RR derailment (in the US) ... poor track maintenance, poor wheel inspection, carmen who do not know how to do a proper inspection of trains in a yard ... not to mention weather and soil shifting.

The main point being: The US infrastructure is failing, and will continue to rot, due to negligence, and corporate cost cutting measures ... too few people to actually do the jobs, (too many chiefs, not enough braves).

Did I mention that there is a major/minor train derailment every 7 1/2 minutes (in the US) 24/7/365?

Ever listen to those US railcers, wobbling down the tracks, with wheel flat spots banging away on the railhead, on every wheel ? !

Only 7/8 th's of an inch of flange keeps all those wheels on the track ... that's 1096 roller bearings, 1096 flat spotted wheel treads, per train, traveling on spread, sagging, broken rail.

Murphy's law ... What ever can go wrong ... will go wrong !
 
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cascaderailroad said:
Google Earth sometimes warps an image, when in fact the rails may be straight and level
Click to expand...

Nope. Not these! I visited this yard quite often in the past and then more recently with Mr. Bartus a couple of weeks ago. The tracks are worse now than they were back 15 years ago, and the yard is busier than ever due to the closing of two smaller yards. There are blocks all over the place for putting the cars back on the track. I've seen the crew get the wood and put it under a wheel or two to get the cars back on the track. The biggest problem though is turning rails due to them pulling out of the ties and falling over a, la the Penn Central.

John
 
I absolutely hate that guy,{ Murphy}he gets into things you'd never expect him to find.:hehe: I quite agree with cascaderailroad on this, if we don't start investing back into our infrastructure. These derailments are never going to stop. Unless maintenance budgets are greatly increased by size and worker force. But it's going to take people to start demanding direct investment, instead of the money going studies on how to use it. I know of 6 studies costing about 800 million just to figure out the best way to spend investments for area rails
 
But cost of damage, and loss of product are up, and actual reporting of what's consider minor incident going unreported. And with more rails using using engineered deficient or obsolete bridges, it's only a matter of time. Whit demand is or the rize, with railroads asking for and getting tonnages safety limits dropped for greater profit. When accident do take place, the repairs are usually a patch, not meant for long term use. These degrade the lines further, while waiting years for proper repair or replacement. I'd say in all, this is a recipe for greater problems. Some of the best maintained lines I've seen, were all laid down in the last twenty years, and still have issues do to low maintenance cost to use ratio. Why are accident now planned for as to loss of the line, product and engines and crews?
 
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Hi everybody.
jordon412 said:
Nope. I'm referring to Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Click to expand...

Murphy’s Law does not make things inevitable. Good maintenance and safety procedures can reduce accidents and incidents like the derailments described dramatically and to a level that they become a very infrequent occurrence rather than an everyday occurrence. Good maintenance and safety can pay for itself in reduced costs and claims on a company and better service to its customers, therefore more customers.

One railway accident which has continued to draw the interest of lawyers and safety experts here in Europe has been the Lac Megantic rail disaster in Canada on 6 July 2013. That incident caused the death of the 47 persons when a freight train loaded with Bakken crude oil ran away, derailed and exploded in the town.

Although the accident occurred in Canada the railroad and train was owned by an American company namely Montréal maine and Atlantic railway. The railroad company already had a very poor maintenance and safety record, and shortly after the disaster filed for bankruptcy as a way of avoiding payment of these claims.

However, in a landmark move litigation has now been taken out against the owners and shippers of the crude who contracted MMAR to transport the oil. Failure to provide adequate consignment details has been cited along with insufficient checks on the safety and insurance status of the railroad company by the consignees has also been cited along with many other failures. The forgoing places the owners and shippers of the oil in a position of being co-responsible for the accident and therefore liable for huge claims and possible criminal negligence procedures against them.

Should the above litigation succeeded (and overwhelming genral opinion within the law fraternity is that it will) then customers of railroad companies will then insist that maintenance and safety receives a huge upgrade so as to forestall litigation against them in the future. It is expected that the legal action will take 24 to 36 months to complete and if the outcome is favourable then the whole North American railway system may become much better for it.

In the meantime the employees at all levels of the Montréal maine and Atlantic railway have received more than 45 court summonses for criminal negligence in the last few weeks. Should they be found guilty I hope they receive very long prison sentences for their part in what occurred.

Bill
 
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The Lac Megantic rail disaster in Canada on 6 July 2013. That incident caused the death of the 47 persons when a freight train loaded with Bakken crude oil ran away, derailed and exploded in the town ... This infuriates me much ... When I saw the woman that said she lost everything (in the explosion/fire) ... Including her little dawg ... and that it was her birthday ... makes me want to reach out to her ... and help !

wholbr said:
In the meantime the employees at all levels of the Montréal maine and Atlantic railway have received more than 45 court summonses for criminal negligence in the last few weeks. Should they be found guilty I hope they receive very long prison sentences for their part in what occurred.Bill
Click to expand...

Prison sentences (after the fact) are not enough !

Going to jail does ... not bring dead family members back !
 
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The MMA had about 20-odd open safety and compliance claims against them prior to the Quebec accident. Their system was being run into the ground with little or no maintenance on the equipment or the track. As we can see, this lead to this terrible disaster, and sadly they attempted to side-step the recovery process by filing bankruptcy.

John
 
Hasn't such events not been a regular thing over there. Gives an impression track isn't being properly seen to.
 
Hi everybody.
Well it is at least good to see that the transportation authorities are looking closely at the maintainence situation with this company and line. However, I have to say if I lived adjacent to the track in question I would definitely have many fears and questions regarding having crude oil transportation along the line.

Crude oil obtained from traditional drilled oil wells is not a problem and has been transported by rail for many years. That said, crude oil obtained from fracking is certainly “a different kettle of fish”. Crude oil obtaned by this method (especially Bakken crude) contains high levels of hydrogen sulphide which is highly inflammable and the vapour even at low levels can be lethal to human beings. Hydrogen sulphide on release from the fracking process is distributed within the crude oil in minute molecules and in that state is relatively harmless.

The problem comes in transportation when vibration and movement of the oil causes the hydrogen sulphide molecules to rise through the oil and then concentrate in a vapour above the oil when in the confines of any tank or pipeline. In a pipeline at various stages it can be extracted, processed and made inert by chemical methods. In a road or rail tanker obviously the foregoing cannot take place and just venting it to the atmosphere could cause danger to any person in the vicinity of the tank car.

Hydrogen sulphide concentrations in the rail tank cars was the main agent in the explosion and fire at Lac Megnatic. Tank cars containing fracked oil can become literally a "travelling bomb" and a derailment even at low speed could provide the ignition source for yet another huge incident. The head of network rail here in the UK has stated that he cannot see any circumstances where crude oil obtained through fracking will be allowed onto the British rail network. That may end any prospect of fracking in the UK

Bill
 
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