Anyone have info about this very recent event?
It is believed that this is the incident.
Can someone verify that this is in fact the incident?
Local news media went silent after the news-workers could not get their story straight. BNSF and FRA are still investigating and is not saying much. Causes:
(take your pick from what was reported)
(1) ran into or rear ended another train (debunked already)
(2) collided with a railcar that fouled the main from the adjacent siding
(3) struck a piece of work equipment
(4) struck a piece of construction equipment (not BNSF)
(5) broken rail/center-bound truck in a compound curve complete with a switch in a curve (headache to maintain)
Derailment is between MP 27.5 and MP 28 on the Front Range Sub (LS-476/ C&S)…damaged bridge may be a double box culvert that drains the Boulder & Lefthand Ditch…when you add-in the local homeless problem and the adjoining commercial/industrial properties parking trucks and other things on railroad property until the railroad runs them off, the place is a headache.
Wonder if this is the new version of the 1980’s “what’s green and white and goes ka-boom in the middle of the night?” in NE Colorado…
Front Range Sub [Denver to Cheyenne] usually runs at night because of the street running along Mason Street in Ft. Collins to the north and the town getting disrupted by the stopped traffic as the train goes thru - this area is a lesser version of that.
Wonder how long it actually takes BNSF to determine why their trains derail as opposed to staying silent so the news media stops asking?
I can think of at least two reasons for BNSF staying silent on the suspected cause:
The derailment may have caused enough damage to the site of where the derailment started to make it very difficult to determine the cause. Think of long it can take to determine the cause of a plane crash.
There may be some liability or some other legal issue where BNSF thinks it is best to keep quiet until the facts are properly sorted out.
The data that each form of transportation collects and maintains about its operations, will - for carrier only purposes, highlight the cause of the incident. The investigation of the event must proceed to develop unchallengeable facts about the incident before the carriers are willing to communicate with the media ‘on the record’.