http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=83492
I never thought a truck could derail a locomotive…[%-)]
Trucks have caused some very serious railroad accidents. You try hitting 80,000 lbs and see what happens.
neither can i when usually it is the other way around especially when you consider the differences in wieght.
Nobody said the Truck Won! Just that the reinforced steel truck frame went under the locomotive wheels. A snow plow on the locomotive will usually prevent this.
A rail could have broken as a result of the accident too. Not enough info to say the truck derailed the loco.
My guess is that a combination of factors caused what we see. The truck’s weight, its angle to the axis of advance of the locomotive, its centre of gravity, the condition of the roadbed and the rails under the leading truck of the diesel…
Certainly any kind of obsruction can derail a locomotive if the circumstances are right. I know of one case where a single spike derailed a locomotive and wrecked its train.
I can believe that, after all spikes ain’t soft. Usually a train will plow through anything but a tractor trailer is always a worthy opponent. If its the accident I saw on the news the other day then believe me the truck didn’t win.
Hard Water, under the right circumstances is capable of derailing a locomotive. Mud packed ice in road crossing flangeways have derailed many a locomotive and many, many more cars.
Look at the engine. Besides from some damage on the front and lead truck damage, the train has practical won yet again. That truck was likely destroyed
for whats its worth…
in 1999 a westbound CP run-thru out of Grand Rapids hit a county salt truck…the train was doing track speed…around 50…3 SD-40-2’S and 4 or 5 cars derailed…truck was demolished…truck was a International single axle dump that weighs about 20,000# empty…plus the 15,000# of salt…after the fact come to find out the truck driver comitted suicide…there was a note in the cab of the truck
I know with P42’s it dosen’t take much to put them on the ground. just look at http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/18/Hillsborough/Amtrak__Two_days__two.shtml I have seen lots of photos of P42’s derailed after hitting relitivety small vehiceals
In the late 1970’s or early 1980’s near Claxton,Georgia a SCL train hit a log truck.Three locos and several cars were de-railed.