TRAIN DERAILMENT!

Wow,at least the material the tank car was carrying at the time of the accident did not leak, I would say that was amazing and not to mention a close call, it could have got worse if not for the fast response time!:cool:
 
saintjimmy said:
That's stunning if that derailment was caused by the sun's heat bending the rails! Glad that no one died, though.

It is amazing, too, what the railroads will rebuild in order to save the hassle of buying another loco. Just look at this page (about 2/3 down) and you can see what I mean. It looks if the GP60M is a total loss (last pic), but it was rebuilt and repainted and put back into service. I can't even tell that it's the same locomotive!

Just putting it out there

Kyle
Click to expand...

I agree,I can't even begin to think about the price tag for such a brand-new locomotive these days!:cool:
 
Accidents are unfortunate, and I"m glad no one was killed. What gets me is how much the news media makes out of a derailment like this. They usually pick incidents like this apart for weeks on end. A few years ago a tanker truck carrying gasoline flipped over in Everett, causing all kindos of chaos. It didn't even make the headlines. It appeared on the third page of the newspaper, and only a 1/2 second interview with the locals.

But if this happened in the B&M yard nearby, there would be helicopters all over, and the media would be speculating about the loss.

John
 
I liked it better in the old days(1800s and early 1900s) when they actually went into detail about the wrecks. (I have book upon book of the old news articles.) This was before television, so they actually had to have pretty good descriptive writing to keep people interested, even if some of the descriptions were grisly. You would have headlines like "He was blown to atoms where he stood." (train came apart going down a grade, front section stopped, second section carrying explosives collected right next to a town, causing a fireball) "Grisly scene on the banks of the Schuylkill."(Shoemakersville wreck) and things like that. There were accounts of the individual rescuers, the survivors, and the unfortunate death toll(which wasn't as high as, say, a plane wreck.[add up all of the deaths in "Great Train Wrecks of Eastern PA" and you will get less than a single plane crash death wise]) They would write about eye witness accounts, what happened, even speculation about what happened, but, most of the time, they wouldn't lay blame until the trial was over.

Todays media just focuses on the fact that they have video at the scene. Decades down the line, we will end up forgetting about these wrecks. Why? Because there isn't really any detailed written description. Nobody takes the time to describe what happened in great detail, even when it is as big as the Metrolink crash. Years from now, all that people will know is that a Metrolink train blew a signal due to texting and hit a UP freight train head on, and people died. There won't be any detail. There won't be anything from the people on the train, or the crew of the UP freight. The romance of the railroad is dead and gone. Not because of financeing, mergers and the use of diesels, but because of the death of the written word from the world, in exchange for visual media. And that is a shame.
 
The romance of the railroad is dead and gone. Not because of financeing, mergers and the use of diesels, but because of the death of the written word from the world, in exchange for visual media. And that is a shame.

A very true statement that applies to much more than just railroads. We have become a world of sound bites and that is very sad.

"The pen is mightier than the sword" Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1839.
 
"But the television is mightier than the pen" Jdenm8 - 2010
How true; we are the worse off for it.
 
I remember the great, late George Carlin saying that "The pen is mightier than the sword" should have been updated through the ages. Such as, the typewriter is mightier than the machine gun. The word processor is mightier than the nuclear bomb, ect.
 
there was a derailment in Bakersfield CA invalving a FEC and UP(i dont know what FEC was doing in CA)the FEC was a mixed cargo, the UP was a passenger(UP is both passenger and cargo)
 
April 26th Radebaugh Pa

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10116/1053497-100.stm
The 11J westbound train was traveling from New Jersey to Ohio with 113 empty multilevel automobile carriers when 22 cars left the tracks at 4:39 a.m.

Separating the cars, rerailing them, and replacing the damaged rails was more of an inconvienience, as damage was minimal. All traffic was detoured, as well as Amtrak via the Conemaugh Line. There was a funny radio message on the scanner radio, as 20T just radioed into Conway and said: "This is the 20T from where ever we are at." Guess he was lost and isn't used to the Conemaugh Line... lol
 
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When will all this mess stop?! Probably when the railroads get taken over by robots or if humans, develop a machine that can drive a train, without needing an engineer to do the work. The locomotive can just drive itself and the engineer can relax in the cab and not have to do anything, but toot the air horn.
 
amtrack505 said:
the UP was a passenger(UP is both passenger and cargo)
Click to expand...

No, the Union Pacific Railroad only has office car specials alongside freight. Amtrak took all the passenger rail operations in 1971, except for on the Rio Grande, but even the D&RGW caved in and gave Amtrak control of the only passenger train, they had: The Rio Grande Zephyr, a section of the former California Zephyr.
 
On average there are 20 derailments every day, most of them minor....sometimes there are more per day. I heard that a train hits a car every 9 minutes..I find that statistic a little far fetched.

What makes trains uncontrollable is: In essance they are 125 runaway wagons, with the air brakes pumped up in the off position. Take in the slack too much and the wagons bunch back up, and come crashing into each other. And the air brakes usually take upwards of 90 seconds to kick in. And emergency brake activation from the first car, to the last car can also take 10 seconds. A train at 79mph travels a good ammount of feet in 10 seconds brake delay time. EABS (Electronic Air Brake System) is electricly operated, an carries a 240V connector wire between cars (thats what I read, possibly 24 Volts ?) This, and similar high tech braking systems, enable instant braking, first car, to last car. The problem is, that only Unit trains have this technology, and the 786 million freight cars out there have braking systems that haven't been checked out thoroughly since before 1960, and the remains the exact same technology carried over from the first invention of the Westinghose Air Brake, perfected in the 1930's.

Railroads are a transportation industry, a private corporation. With only the FRA to restrict them into compliance, RR's are free to do what they want, and to cut costs, and cut corners on spending money on upgrades. They are trying to do the same job that RR's did in the 1930's, with less cost and maintenance nowdays. Essentually, Railroads are not making money and profit, and are operating in the Red, on the verge of bankruptcy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZLVi4v7lSM&feature=related
 
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Rock Slide near AR Tower, Emergency near UN Interlocking

At 6 AM, MOW Bill Little reported that a rock slide occurred on the old "0" track (now #8 main) and the slide came down beneath the Sonman coal train that had been parked on 8 main...so the trapped traincars cannot be moved until the slide is cleaned up. A tree is involved in the slide...the entire train could be dragged clear of 8 MAIN so MOW could get in to clear away the rest of the mess...At 10AM, power is being attached to the coal drag on 8 Main to drag the 43 car section out of the way for MOW access crew...

And...

Eastbound 12G reported it was in emergency, with the head end just West of the Allegheny Tunnel on Track 2.....Crew walking the train at 10:30AM...
 
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cascaderailroad said:
I heard that a train hits a car every 9 minutes..I find that statistic a little far fetched.
Click to expand...

I believe the statistic is that a train hits a car or a person every 90 minutes.

I recently uncovered an official FRA accident report circa 1975 for Bucks County that says a Reading passenger train traveling 60 mph struck a semi at a crossing after the truck did not stop for the flashing gates. 3 people were killed, 1 was injured. Here's what I don't understand: it says two people that were killed were employees and the other one was a passenger on the train. The injured person was another employee and the truck driver escaped unscathed! Does this mean the train derailed when it hit the truck? Strangely enough, I can't uncover any more information about this accident. I've tried searching Google for records of it; nothing turns up. Does anyone know anymore information about this accident? I'm just curious because I think it's strange something like this would not turn up.

P.S. This accident is not to be mixed up with the fiery collision of a semi with a SEPTA RDC in Southampton, PA in 1982.

EDIT: After doing some more intense research, I've discovered enough information about the accident to fulfill my quest. I've found out there was no derailment in this collision, so my post should really be deleted. Sorry guys!

Carfreak4
 
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