The Frisco flipped!!!

Not really sure where else to put this, but since it does involve real life trains, I thought I’d better let you all know.

THE FRISCO FLIPPED!!!!!

Technically the “Frisco” was the Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train at Silver Dollar City Theme Park. The train in question was engine 504, a 2 foot gauge oil fired 0-4-0 tender equipped steam engine, and her tender, alongside three of her cars, all wound up completely off the rails, with quite a few of the bogie trucks off the cars as well, just sitting on the ground, with two of the three cars on their sides. I am also pretty sure that the handicap car at the rear may also have had its front bogie truck off the rails, but I can’t confirm that, as the video isn’t very clear on it.

Thankfully, only minor injuries were reported, and no deaths, so, yay, I think?

Oh, and one passenger did claim that they had to bust out the windows on the cars to get people out, but if you look at the video the door side was up on the flipped cars, and the Covid enforced plexiglass windows had already been removed, from the side that was on the ground, months ago. I can confirm the lack of plexiglass windows as I just rode that train last Thursday, and the plexiglass wasn’t in use.

I can confirm Conductor Kate was on scene, though whether she was the conductor on board or not when the train flipped is unknown. At least one Bolin Brother was also seen standing on top of one of the flipped cars, though whether is was Alfie or Ralphie remains to be seen.

Anyways, just thought I would let you all know. Prayers for those involved would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Rockatoa, Brickticks out!
 
Could the passenger have meant they busted out the windows on the ends of the cars? I noticed the windows on the ends had plexiglass in the video. He mentioned they couldn't climb up, so seems plausible they broke the end windows to get out of their flipped car.

Doesn't seem to be an immediately obvious cause. The flipped cars plus the loco would've been on the outside of the curve if the train was speeding. Seeing as it was just the cars on their sides on the inside of the curve in the video with the loco standing, it could be that the bump they felt caused a sudden pull on the cars, which could cause them to flip to the inside of the curve from the physics of the weight of the train pulling back with the loco pulling forward. Something like that happened to a freight train of empty auto carriers on a tight uphill curve near where I am. I imagine a narrow gauge train would be more susceptible to this due to the width of the car vs the width of the gauge.
 
We call that string lining. I think that's what happened here. My guess is that since this was a normal sized train for them that something happened (maybe a minor derailment on one of the last cars) and the resulting change in drag caused the start of the string line. Purely guess work from what little info is available to me, especially since I'm over 1000 miles away.
 
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