It has just been reported, this Friday the 26th of August morning, that the California Zephyr has been derailed in southwest Nebraska after striking a farm vehicle on the tracks. More specifically, now, two locomotives have been derailed, along with three cars. Some passengers hospitalized, and others transported to a local high school for further transportation. Here is the Yahoo report: http://news.yahoo.com/amtrak-train-hits-farm-vehicle-nebraska-several-cars-154634517.html
Now is a crane
Hmmm - a distant cousin to the farmer that had the center pivot go out on the tracks?
Amtrak across Nebraska at your own risk!
From an Associated Press report:
(FRIDAY)Aug 26, 1:22 PM EDT (FROM THE LINK)
**“**Small number’ in hospital after Amtrak derailment"
BENKELMAN, Neb. (AP)
FTL:”… Amtrak says a small number of passengers have been taken to hospitals after a train carrying about 175 people between California and Chicago derailed in Nebraska.
Amtrak says the California Zephyr train ran into some equipment on the tracks and derailed around 8 a.m. near Benkelman, not far from the state’s borders with Kansas and Colorado.
Two locomotives and the first three of 10 passenger cars left the tracks. The locomotives tipped onto their sides but Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari says there was no fire…"
[Note:The article makes no mention of what exactly was on the track that caused the derailment. Apparently, according to one of the previous posts the ‘equipment’ was some ‘agricultural equipment’]
It wasn’t exactly a “farm vehicle”. It was one of those rubber-tired cranes, engaged in the demolition of a trackside grain elevator. One report says that the train became snagged in its cables (I can’t quite visualize that happening unless the vehicle was also hit). The photographs I saw show the crane separated from its chassis.
So this was evidently a contractor who should have known better than to foul a track without a lookout or other permission.
And, in the shaking-of-the-head department, the very same train was involved in an accident with a SUV in Elko, Nevada, the previous day.
From Denver’s 9News and KNOP-TV: PHOTOS
!(http://www.9news.com/9slideshows/Amtrak train derailment/8-26-11-train-derailed-12.jpg)
…What a rash of similar accidents with vehicles fouling the main line routes this season. Almost like the public is completely unaware of such trains traveling at this speed…
At least I’ve heard of no fatilities. And it appears the engines landed on mostly level ground and {with no fire}, appears all engines and passenger cars {from the photos}, will be repairable.
If this was a 10 car train? It appears that in picture no. 9 only the last 4 cars are on the track? The lounge cars [ no 5 car ] appears that front trucks off rail? So any conclusions?
Yes. That we as a species are getting collectively dumber and dumber.
And yet, periodically you will seen in the newspapers letters about the ‘exorbitant charges’ railroads charge to provide flagmen to railroad involved construction projects … with the outside (and local governmental) presumption that all trains move prepared to stop at the drop of a hat and that they can hire any idiot to wave a flag in front to the train to stop it from hitting the construction equipment.
I do not understand if this type of deconstruction job was taking place in such proximity to the active rail line why no one from the railroad was present to monitor the activity and movement.
Several years back I was working with a contractor who was building a bridge over the KCS RR main line just north of Pittsburg, Kansas. The railroad provided personnel to the job site, at all times when work was being done. Nothing moved until it was cleared by Railroad personnel. They made sure that nothing was set where the line would be fouled, and was out of the way before a train rolled /crawled through the work site.
Is that not a normal practice for a railroad to monitor a job so close to their line?
It is the contractors responsibility to request a railroad flagman, as only the contractor knows when he is going to be working. Passing trains that see construction activity taking place near railroad porperty do report seeing the activity and the information is passed along to the appropriate MofW personnel who will pay a visit to the site to get information concerning the project and make arrangements for getting the proper protection, if necessary, in place.
Reputable experienced contractors know when flagmen are necessary. The fly by night, take the money and run type … not so much.
[quote user=“samfp1943”]
blue streak 1:
Stourbridge Lion:
From Denver’s 9News and KNOP-TV: PHOTOS
!http://www.9news.com/9slideshows/Amtrak%20train%20derailment/8-26-11-train-derailed-12.jpg
If this was a 10 car train? It appears that in picture no. 9 only the last 4 cars are on the track? The lounge cars [ no 5 car ] appears that front trucks off rail? So any conclusions?
I do not understand if this type of deconstruction job was taking place in such proximity to the active rail l
If 6 cars did derail I wonder how much inspection and repair will have to be done to each? Anyone know FRA rules?
I hope that Amtrak files another $10M lawsuit. Maybe the word will get around. Probably not likely?
John Deere season open in Nebraska?
I think our favorite Mudchicken would say “John Dumb” season.
One of the articles I read offered the lame excuse that the demolition crew “did not expect a train at that hour of the morning.”
John Timm
I believe the railroads have always believed in the rule - “expect a train on any track at any time”…
I have a hard time imagining what actually happened. Someone said the crane cables snagged the train. I could see a fair amount of stretch in that cable combined with some boom deflection that would have loaded up like a spring and snapped the crane unit off of the truck bed, as appears to have happened. The truck bed is sitting there with all four outriggers out and down, and it looks like it did not even move. What I can’t imagine is how this snagging of the cable could have derailed the train. Certainly, it could not have lifted the locomotive. Maybe the train tore the block/hook off of the cable, ran over it, and derailed.
Part of the boom got under the wheels…all it takes is to raise them off the rail about an inch and its all over.
Noted the rolled and broken rail in one of the photos, looks like the lead unit derailed, broke the rail and laid over, the next one followed it and so forth.
Oh that would derail the train alright. It would be interesting to see the video taken from the locomotive camera.