Analogy of the fateful SP Extra 7551 East

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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First of all, posting this after seeing a special program on TV about this accident and the purpose I think as the same thing in history in general is hopefully that we can all learn from our past mistakes and also gain a bit understanding into the operations of prototype.

I only realise how important the dynamic brakes is to a train’s descending capability after seeing the program. I also only realisd the magnitude of the weight that’s being pulled by a train these days.

I believe somehow this may have contriburted to failure of the ill-fated SP and ATSF merger. According to the program, eventually SP settled all claims out of court and may have paved the way for the UP and SP merger later on.

It seems to me that SP was obviously in the brink of collapse, otherwise how would you explain the poor state of the locomotives were in.

Full report here:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Railroad_accident_report—_Derailment_of_Southern_Pacific_Transportation_Company_freight_train_on_May_12,_1989_and_subsequent_rupture_of_Calnev_petroleum_pipeline_on_May_25,_1989—_San_Bernardino,_California

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The ICC had already denied the SPSF merger by this time. SP’s troubles started long before this wreck. See “And then the Golden Empire Came Crashing Down” published in the March 2005 Trains.