Amtrak derailment in Michigan

Trains Magazine Passenger
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an amtrak coming from michigan derailed the engine and damaged an intermodal box on a freight train

to read more follow the links

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22043654/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22043424/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22043659/

there are videos

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The derailment occured near Chicago. The train was Amtrak #371 the Pere Marquette.

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It was a headline on the homepage of peoplepc today.

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Does anyone know what equipment was used on 371?

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I saw a picture on the TV news showing a Genesis locomotive followed by three Superliner cars – there was no trailing “cabbage” car in that consist.

I guess good for the construction of the Superliner cars that they all stayed on the rails and that the people inside suffered no worse than to get banged up. Apparently there were five Amtrak crew who are badly hurt – the news said that people were pinned inside the cab of the Genesis.

You would think that with Wide Cab/Safety Cabs on locomotives that they would protect the crew – the locomotive appeared to have climbed up on a double-stack flatcar and that it stove in a shipping container should be good because no one cares about the loss to that cargo if it could cushion the impact and save the crew and passengers.

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LOL they don’t call them Genes#its for nothing.

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The train was speeding - The signal was set for restricted (15 mph) and the train was going around 40 before the brakes were applied.

link to the most recent article from yahoo news -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_us/train_collision

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here is two questions that i have

why was the amtrak train on the same track as the frieght train?

shouldn’t the signal have been red until the freight train was gone?

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Anybody else wondering why they reported 5 people in the cab?

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http://youtube.com/watch?v=HNzI4jeE4c0

To think of all that perfectely good freight equipment gone to waste :frowning: hopefuely they can fix the flat car.

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The last I heard was that it was another crew deadheading back to Chicago, but don’t quote me on that. I unfortunately can’t find the article where I read that, so I’m afraid I can’t back that up with sources. I’ll keep trying to find it though.

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can any one tell me the answers to my question?

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Trains operate on the same track all the time. I think your question is why were they in the same signal block. Railroad practice over the years has always been to allow trains to follow up behind the train in the block ahead. Since you’re depending on the engineer to make the stop at the stop signal anyway, it’s no less safe to let him pull into an occupied block and stop short of the train ahead. The time-honored signal aspect normally would be “stop and proceed”. What this gets you over having the train wait at the stop signal is greater line capacity and reduced running times.

The signal was essentially “red”. A restricting signal in this case is essentially a “stop and proceed” with out the stop (which saves time and energy). It tells the engineer to expect the track ahead to be occupied. It means you are allowed to proceed only half as far as you can see ahead, and never exceed 15 mph. This would have allowed the Amtrak train to slowly pull down to 23M’s marker - getting closer to Union Station, sooner.