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BNSF derailment forces evacuation of North Dakota town
Get ready for more discussion of “bomb trains” in the media.
Not again… this just fuels the media and hate against trains
There seems to be an oblique tie in with the NS first responder’s commemorative paint scheme in terms of business as usual and this drill of hazardous threats becoming routine.
Is 40 people really a town??? Media headlines…UGH.
One has to wonder if there is person or persons going around that deliberately cause these wrecks to support their agenda.
you got that right don from Washington ,there is something going on here not right way to many wrecks for oil trains must be the pipe line supporters
DB and MM,
Please, very few conspiracy theory comments here…
It seems the constituents of the Bakken “crude” are at fault
Suck them out before the stuff is loaded and transported, almost incombustible, not to say incomprehensible explosiveness, as the trains cargo.
Al Franken, Minn Senator,is and was validly concluding that safe movement of the Bakken crude, stripped of the volatiles could and would be transported.safely…
ok the pundits will go crazy with the anti oil rhetoric again operate safe out there
I’ll ask the same questions of the rail experts as I’ve asked before. What % of oil trains derail versus the % of any other freight train on the same rails? Are the oil trains more top heavy than others? Other cars like container, grain, coal, etc. are rectangular which puts more weight on the bottom than a tube would. Have any studies been done on the physics of interaction of miles of such tubes in a row versus other types of consists? Do the oil trains have distributed power which may help alleviate this problem? I have a hard time believing crappy track is the issue given the derailments seem to all happen on main lines.
Nathan Anderson, I believe that you are 100% correct in your assessments. Granted that the cylindrical shape ensures that the most liquid drains to the bottom of the car, but by virture of their shape tank cars would have a higher center of gravity than rectangular cars. Add in the weight and density of crude oil, and it seems to be a recipe for load imbalance. Although it would mean longer and/or more oil trains, less lading in each car (lowering the center of gravity) would be the answer …
I’m with Nathan frm Mass–are their more oil trains derailing/accidents than other consist ? Can’t the RR’s and the public authorities be thinking about some sort of sabotage–not by any particular group but by some sort of terrorist organization ? Their are a lot nut cases running around these days.
@ Brian from Virginia:
“Is 40 people really a town???”
I don’t know Brian, was it that big of a deal when 47 died in Canada? You’re totally right, probably just media hype…
To the question about the lateral motion; Why doesn’t someone mount an accelerometer on the dome of a loaded tank car and just see if the tank cars are really moving excessively from side to side due to their higher center of gravity? The experiment would use a “typical” tank car moving in a “typical” train.
I AM SICK AND TIRED OF " NEWS MEDIA TYPES " WHO DO NOT KNOW A RAILWAY TRACK FROM INTERSTATES HIGHWAY " MAKING UNFOUNDED COMMENTS THAT GET PEOPLE ALL WORKED UP - this is why I believe that 60% of all news items is geared to “SENSATIONAL HEADLINES - SELL NEWSPAPERS”
George Benson, that’s the type of comparative study that is needed. It would be a good project for a bunch of engineering college kids. They’re not set in their ways and hungry to learn. The RRs should fund such studies, it would be chump change for them.