Not necessarily, but a run-though switch - where the tie bars are broken - will be a “smoking gun” and evidence as to where the (human) error occured.
I imagine that this is CTC territory too, if these are power switches. The dispatcher (and their CTC system/software) should have a record of who was cleared through, and which train overran their authority. Also, the UP engines (and perhaps Metrolink as well) should have cab camera footage of the minutes leading up to the wreck, if the recordings are recoverable.
It shouldn’t take too long to get the facts out, considering the technology now involved. My dollar’s going towards crew error on one of the trains - someone ran a red-over-red, stop-and-stay absolute signal. Considering all the “green” crews running out there - all the old “heads” retiring - I’m not surprised to see all the wrecks we’ve seen lately.
Yahoo News has the story on this,as well as 90 pictures of the incident.From what is seen,the Union Pacific train was on the mainline,as it approached the siding.The Metrolink train was in the siding.So,it looks like the Metrolink failed to stop.I find it unreal that the Metrolink trains go that fast…to knock a 6 axle locomotive off the track, and a some railcars as well.Speechless is what I am right now,dont know what else one can say.
I saw the Yahoo News photos and some clearly show the track curvature which seems quite severe. One of the photos also seem to show the overturned UP unit with fuel tank ruptured, which could have contributed to the extent of the tragedy. This is going to be one heck of an investigation as somebody accidentally or otherwise caused this tragedy…either by neglect, incorrect actions by accident, or (God forbid) deliberately set this tragedy in motion. Only time will tell which one of these it is.
Well the track is gonna bend/break at the collision weather the Metrolink train is moving or not. The weight of the freight train will crush in on itself pushing it’s locomotive off the track.
this happened a few years ago when a BNSF train rear ended a Metrolink train. Crew argued at whether the signal was green or red, and green won.
Death toll is at 18 and counting. When a fast passenger train hits a heavy freight, the passenger will tend to bounce off of the freight, since it is lighter. Just a bit of physics. I just saw video of the UP engines. The cab and nose on one is destroyed and the other seems to have the same. The Metro engine appears to have burned up. One of the cars looks like it was crushed into pieces.
EDIT: looks like the lead unit rode up on the Metro engine, destroying it, and the first car piled up and has severe damage. The UP engine shows that it got some damage
The parts that break or bend when a switch is run-through create virtually no noise or feeling when one considers the ambiant noise in a locomotive as well as the relative mass of a locomotive and the parts that get bent or broken.
Sounds very similar to the MARC/Amtrak collision at Silver Spring, MD a few years ago. The MARC train left a station stop, forgetting that the signal prior to the station stop had been an Approach indication, (approach next signal prepared to stop), the MARC train accelerated away from the station stop to track speed, came around a curve, saw the absolute signals for the interlocking at Stop and Amtrak crossing over from #2 track to #1 track…collision immediately followed.
Yes, I was thinking of Silver Spring, MD too. The UP train is the Leesdale local, locomotives are SD70ACe 8485 leading and 8491 trailing, the UP crew has relatively minor injuries. The Metrolink train is #111 lead by locomotive 855, a F59PH (not a F59PHI), followed by coaches 185 and 287, the trailing cab car hasn’t been identified in any report I have seen. The Metrolink locomotive was driven into the leading coach by the impact estimated as nearly a combined 80 mph with the frame of coach 185 shearing off the locomotive’s trucks and fuel tank. The Metrolink Engineer is reported to have not survived the crash, but the Conductor back in the train has survived with serious injuries. The curve at the crash site is approximately a 6 degree curve which is fairly sharp. It is very fortunate that the crash didn’t have a few hundred feet further west in the tunnel. The Metrolink train had just made a station stop at Chatsworth.
As a point of reference, the two UP SD70ACes weigh more than the whole Metrolink passenger train.
The UP train was lined for the siding, but the available photographs show that the collision was effectively head-on. The collision would have been much less severe if the leading UP locomotive had reached the siding switch and been diverted before the impact.
From what I’ve read, he’s one of the deceased. If he did run the signal(s), he paid for his mistake with his life.
One of the concerns I have about this is that the first coach was “telescoped” by the MetroLink engine. This “telescoping” has traditionally been a cause of many deaths and severe injuries in passenger train accidents.
I was under the imprssion that devices such as tight lock couplers and “anti climbers”, in addition to the FRSA required “buff” strength in rail cars were there to prevent this. Any one have an idea on why they didn’t prevent the telescoping in this accident. The passengers don’t have much of a chance when telescoping happens.
Passenger-car telescoping was one of the reasons railroads went from wooden to metal construction and why the Post Office required the same on RPOs. If the Metro’s cars had been heavyweights made of heavy steel rather than of light-weight construction, one wonders if the accident’s outcome would be less macabre.
I just got done viewing the LA Times photos of the wreck site. I can’t tell where the siding (passing) location is, but the track behind the Metrolink train is single-track, on a small fill. It definately sounds like the UP train had the authority, and that the Metrolink train ran a red absolute signal, but I can’t see the control point from the collision photos.
Perhaps the siding is further behind the passenger train, and Metrolink simply ran the signal at the leaving end of the siding, and continued on the single track to the point of impact. It sure looks like a head-on, “cornfield meet” from the photos of the UP power nose-to-nose with the ill-fated Metrolink engine. Terrible, terrible damage, with the Metrolink F59 completely shoved into the shell of the first passenger car. I can’t see how anyone could survive in the first 2/3rds of the front coach.
I think tightlocks and anti-climbers are effective, but at a combined 80 mph closing speed I don’t think either is enough to prevent the damage we’ve seen. My prayers go out to all the victims… no reason to assign blame anymore now that we know the Metrolink hogger is deceased. It is what it is, and I’m not convinced ATS would have even prevented what happened, considering the speeds involved.
Yes the control point is to the south of the collision. There is also another control point well to the northwest, where the Union Pacific train could have held for the Metrolink train, but it appears this was not the way the tracks were lined. And the latest reports seem to confirm my initial suspicions that the Metrolink train missed a signal.
In an earlier post, I linked to this map. Scroll to the south and you’ll see the double to single track location.
What bothers me is if they ran the signal and opposing switch, wouldn’t someone on board (possibly the conductor) notice the weird sound of the opposing spring switch? Many people onboard interviewed never mentioned sounds out of the ordinary until the actual collision. Not that hearing anything would have mattered as there was practically no window of time to do anything.
Another thing that I’m sure will come out of this, at least pushed by the media, local government, and possibly the public, is the implementation of some form of automatic train control. Metrolink is setup for Automatic Train Stop (ATS) for the portions where it still remains on the former Santa Fe San Diegan route. But even with ATS in this area, I’m not sure if it would fully have prevented this accident.
Terrible tragedy no matter how it happened. One I think we living in Southern California may not forget when we ride the rails for many years.
If we have in-cab signaling in most commuter rail operations, how hard would it be to have the signaling system force an emergency brake application in such a circumstance?