This morning the southbound Piedmont (Raleigh to Charlotte) struck a tractor-trailer truck stuck on the rails in Mebane, North Carolina, where I live. The driver of the truck was uninjured but the train’s engine caught fire (some kind of SD unit, a back up to the regular engine) and derailed. Many passengers were injured but only four seriously enough to be taken to hospitals. You can find some pictures on wral.com. Look for “train hits truck in Mebane.” This crossing has seen several accidents since I moved here seven years ago, including one fatality. The problem is not the train! NS keeps the track and crossing signals in good condition but people tend to stop on the tracks waiting for the traffic light on Center St. (U.S. 70) to change. This rig today, with a “low-boy,” got hung up on the crossing so the tractor was clear of the train. By the way, the town of 10,000 is pronounced “meh-bin.”
This list of equipment is not up to date. New equipment was purchased a couple of years ago and has been being overhauled in anticipation of the new service.
Th GP40 which was in this accident was the oldest engine in the fleet.
Gentlemen: I made a mistake in reading the track charts.As a consequence items 2 - 10 have been modified and original posts will be blanked out. Again sorry!!!
[quote user=“blue streak 1”]
I have examined the footage and also NC DOT’s track charts (October 2007) so could be some changes) and here are the results.
I hope the engineer is OK
\2. The reason that the train did not travel too far beyond the crossing is unknown. The track was upgraded in 2003 (?) to 79 MPH. There are street crossings coming from the 2 + mile siding (extended previously) out of view to the east. (3 head siding signal is visible on side of stopped train). Wonder if engineer big holed the train when he saw the low boy at some distance. The tracks cross 5th (accident site), 4th, and 3rd streets.
Train speed outside these streets is presently listed 79 MPH.
NC DOT does not at present plan to eliminate all three crossings and increase speed further.(many of the charts have not been updated yet to show the PTC speeds up to 110MPH)
Did not find CAT crawler number on load but it is an over width CAT crawler back hoe. Could weigh anywhere near 100,000 -187,000 #s (seriously damaged). Definitely not something an engineer wants to hit. Noted counter weight still attached to backhoe.
Engine was #1792 – anyone with info? Phoebe provided info.
First coach was a rebuilt Baggage coach with ironically painted “operation life saver”. Car was a 34 seat baggage combine named Yadkin River built 1953.Car # 400101
First coach has a large opening ( maybe 8’ x 12’) in the roof at the right rear location of the car. Dammage assestment? May have been caused by the back hoe’s buc
This evening’s news (which I always take with a grain of salt) said that the train was going about 70 MPH and the truck was hung on the crossing unable to move.
If he was going that fast – the train stopped within 4 car lengths (3 cars and loco) for a total of approximately 320 ft. that is 1/2 as far as a car at 70 MPH stops on dry pavement. Even if the backhoe was 170,000 #s and low boy another 50,000 #. =s 220,000# vs approx 600,000# train. That seems a little strange. Oh also the backhoe was knocked away ( about 60 - 80 ft ) not glued to loco. So 70 MPH seems highly unlikely. Also if train stopped that fast almost all passengers would have been thrown forward at that rate of decelaration.??.
It can be argured that the low boy wedged under the loco/train slowed the train that fast. I would like to see the track structure underneath the stopped train.
This is a replay of last year’s Amtrak incident in Brighton, Illinois. (maybe 2 years ago now)
If that crossing was not properly signed by the city/county,
the local city/county engineer plus the truck driver ought to be looking for a new profession. No way does the crossing even come close to meeting minimum AREMA/AASHTO standard (approaches +/- 6 inches 30 feet out from the crossing).
Recent construction didn’t help much, but the condition has obviously existed for a long time.
(The recent incident with the video of the hung up food service truck and the CSX train also comes to mind)
The link to the news station’s website has about 70 photos, from several persons. Most are repetitive views of the fire, but some are different views. A few quick observations:
It appears that the water on the fire wasn’t having much effect, until the foam was applied, but without a video or ‘time stamps’ on the photos that’s just speculation on my part as to how long that took;
The loco is probably scrap due to frame and engine block damage from the heat of the evidently somewhat long exposure to the large fire;
Said fire likely resulted from the lowboy trailer being wedged underneath the loco’s fuel tank and being dragged down the track, generating sparks along the way;
The low nose of the loco is remarkably undamaged. Even if long-hood forward operation was still practiced, I don’t know that the resul
I like irony of photo #43 with the “Operation Lifesaver” logo.
Geez, you’d think a driver for a trucking firm that specializes in handling this type of equipment would have brains in excess of what is necessary to keep the body warm.
I was surprised to see the huge fire that resulted; it almost looks like a Hollywood-staged incident.
That crossing was recently upgraded. NCDOT has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars bringing all the track between Raleigh and Charlotte up to 79 MPH standards. If you look at the photos closely you will see that it has 4 gates which block all 4 lanes on both sides of the road.
The track there is running between two parallel roads.
You’re missing the point. The approach grades are all wrong. In fact they are BUTT UGLY.[soapbox]
There is much more to it than just gates and a new crossing surface. If the state bubbas (probably non-railroaders*) or consultant that funded the thing didn’t even notice the grade issue, shame on them too.
(IF you read Paul’s previous post, he saw it and commented on it the same time as me)…
*IMHO - An awful lot of the so-called Transportation Engineers are bus people with a new title - totally unqualified to railroad, just trying to cash-in on the new railroad people transportation emphasis. They ought to lose their license over something like this if they said nothing during the inspection and evaluation stage of the crossing upgrades.[V]