Utah Trax accident Tues, Nov 5, 2013

[magickmaker]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...des-with-detached-car-from-another-train.html

MIDVALE — A TRAX operator and two passengers were injured Tuesday when the train collided with an empty light-rail car that became disconnected from another train and was left on the tracks.

Some notes on this, as I am working on a donation ware route based on the Trax transit system.

This accident occurred at a point where the Trax service comes around a long sweeping curve. The "yard" they refer to isn't so much a yard, as a series of storage tracks where the blue line terminates. It's the same setup as in City center, with a pair of storage tracks where trains are bed down for the night. Blue line service ends at midnight through four am, when UP works that part of the line up to 900 N to switch a number of industries.

Talking with some operators, I found that the older model cars used on the Blue Line, are slated for replacement, as they are now approaching ten hard years of service. It's believed that the uncoupling may have been a result of the banging that happens at junction points. (This is a major gripe on the "freight" section of the line. Most of the points have wooden ties, while the rest of the track is concrete. Over the years, the wooden ties have gotten out of alignment, causing many jarring moment as the trains pass over the frogs. (Knocked my brains out on a window today on one such point.)

 

[JCitron]

This sounds like a terrible fender bender type accident. I'm sorry to hear about the people getting hurt.

With the track like that, no wonder the trains uncoupled. It reminds me of the old model railroad track that was laid poorly, and usually the track that was buried into a tunnel in the back of the layout too, where the freights would either derail or uncouple themselves.

John