Amtrak Train Derails on Highway Bridge in Washington State

Interesting video; thanks for sharing.
A deft and sad comparison with the shocking AMTK 1402 photo above.
I don't know if that photo with AMTK 181 is taken with a telephoto lens ... for it sure looks like an unrealistic curve ...
 
cascaderailroad said:
It will probably be 2 years before the NTSB will reveal the exact cause.

I never would board a train with only 2 axles, with shared wheelsets between cars, looking like Radio Flyer wagons
Click to expand...
Are you serious ? The train fitted with Jacob bogies are the safer. One day a TGV ( fully equipped with Jacob bogies between coaches not the powe cars ) derailed at 186 mp/h and guess what... the TGV stayed straight and no one was killed just some little hurt.
 
The BBC reported (from Reuters) this morning that the train entered the 30mph curve at 81mph. This suggests human error. Did the engineer not know the route or was he distracted (mobile phone?). I see from the pictures it was a Talgo train.
 
clam1952 said:
Very tragic, Reading up on it, new high speed line, first public run, it's probably best not to speculate.
Click to expand...

I agree, very tragic indeed. Any attempt at in depth analysis or speculation would be entirely inappropriate for these forums.

Rob.
 
MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS said:
In my opinion, I think it was faulty track. Also, what else could possibly cause a train to derail like that!? A tree, yes, but wouldn't they have inspected the line before the inaugural train made its first run? I read an article on it and it said that this trackage is part of a regional rail service. Well, there is only 1 company that can own that then and that is Septa because Septa is basically the only company that provides regional rail service anymore. Passenger service just does not bring a profit anymore and that is why it is gone. That is also why Amtrak was started because all private railways pulled their passenger services. After the 60s a lot of trackage was ripped up and we basically have a BASIC rail network that goes to main cities and towns and there very few passenger regional rail services. If that is Septa's trackage, I am not surprised a train derailed on it because Septa is not a great transportation company. They are still using buses from the 80s and 90s! Their trains are probably from the same era too!
Click to expand...

Yes, there was test runs for weeks before this run. This was the first revenue run, had some press & VIPs on board, hence the "inaugural".

SEPTA is on the completely opposite side of the country from where this happened. The tracks are owned by Seattle's Sound Transit (Sounder). It's also not "regional" (or as we usually call it "corridor) but "Commuter". And there are tons of companies in the US that offer similar rail services to SEPTA: MBTA, MTA, LIRR, NJT, PATH, MARC, TriRail, SunRail, MC*, NICTD, Metra, North*, UTA, RailRunner, Sounder, CalTrans, Metrolink, ACE, to name just a few...

The line up until recently was owned by BNSF. Sound Transit bought the line and performed track upgrades along it to allow for high-speed running by the Cascades.

peter
 
A 30 MPH corner does not sound like high speed rail to me, a poor man's high speed rail perhaps. In the last picture above you are looking at the rear locomotive and the corner is pretty obviously not safe at 81 MPH. Reports are 3 dead so we got lucky.
 
Considering from what I have heard and read, the track where the train derailed, the speed limit was 79 and the train was going 81. And from what normhart is saying, there is no way that curve in the picture with the P42, is safe enough for a train to blast through at 81, let alone about maybe 40 or 50. Very stupid to put a speed limit of 79 on a curve that looks to only handle 30 or 35.
 
BBC and Sky News here in the UK are reporting that the US transport authorities have confirmed the train was traveling at eighty miles per hour in a curve restricted to thirty miles per hour and therefore the outright cause of the incident is now known. However, the root cause of why the train was traveling at that speed will undoubtedly be the main subject of the accident investigation which in all probability will take many months to bring forward conclusions drawn up by those charged with the task.

Bill
 
Trainz_12_fan_100 said:
Very stupid to put a speed limit of 79 on a curve that looks to only handle 30 or 35.
Click to expand...

The curve in question has a posted speed of 30MPH. The train is reported by the NTSB to have been traveling at 81MPH when it left the tracks. Wait for the NTSB to do their work.

Speculation on my part, but I'm guessing the photo of 181 was taken from a highway overpass located about 1/3 to 1/2 mile north of the rail bridge.

Regards,
 
I can tell you all right now 30 MPH is NOT high speed. That is extremely low speed! Slower than a model T. So why do they call this a high speed route even if this is the only slow section on it?
 
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jkinzel said:
The curve in question has a posted speed of 30MPH. The train is reported by the NTSB to have been traveling at 81MPH when it left the tracks. Wait for the NTSB to do their work.

Speculation on my part, but I'm guessing the photo of 181 was taken from a highway overpass located about 1/3 to 1/2 mile north of the rail bridge.

Regards,
Click to expand...
First off, I was stating what I already know about this accident. I was not saying exactly what the speeds for the curve IS​.
 
jkinzel said:
The curve in question has a posted speed of 30MPH. The train is reported by the NTSB to have been traveling at 81MPH when it left the tracks. Wait for the NTSB to do their work.

Speculation on my part, but I'm guessing the photo of 181 was taken from a highway overpass located about 1/3 to 1/2 mile north of the rail bridge.

Regards,
Click to expand...

#181 is resting just before the bridge, less than a Talgo car-length away. You can see a nice overview in this aerial photo (it's big so I didn't embed it)

Here are some aerial photos.
https://imgur.com/a/mCttO
https://imgur.com/a/lCbwO

From Trains Mag, you can see the train, curve, and some line-side equipment it took out.
1218171058_hdr.jpg


peter
 
There are 2 loco's, 1 front, and 1 in back, was the rear loco continuing to push the derailed cars off the track, by kinetic energy ? I always have thought that a loco pushing a consist, can continue to shove a consist off the track, as it may have delayed kinetic energy, and a delayed braking time

MF01 said:
Are you serious ? The train fitted with Jacob bogies are the safer.
Click to expand...
Yeah ... This nomenclature looks highly rugged and safe:

amtrak%20crash%20pierce%20county%20sheriff%207_1513618576560.JPG_11975914_ver1.0.jpg


14568096446_61d13fb04d_b.jpg
 
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Watched a report on this incident on the television news here in Great Britain and what I found rather odd was a tape of the train message to control was played and the train staff man sounded very routine from the train and casually matter of fact almost. Was a speed limit not seen for a bend?
 
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