Federal register bulletin about ballast defects. Even lists a CSX derailment caused by bad ballast. One has to wonder if poor ballast inspections may have speeded up the failure of the Downeaster route and consequence problems this spring and early summer.
When the roadmaster is denied surfacing forces and budget, stuff happens. When the roadmaster gets a tie gang and insufficient ballast to follow, stuff happens. (Ballast regulators can only borrow and move just so much…)When tonnage beats a territory to death or you get excessive rain and tonnage, stuff happens. When denied spot sledding or an undercutter in fouled ballast areas, stuff happens.
There are a bunch of utilities and coal mines in the Powder River Basin that will howl when they see this after BNSF and UP continue the surcharges and delays account coal dust fouling trackage coming out of there. Their whining to STB over un-justified charges coming out of the basin just got the “frivolous” claim nixed.
Then again, the CSX beancounters will now be forced to back off the screws on the surfacing budgets that have been strained for many moons there. They were the last of the Class 1’s to benefit from the boom times as they crawled out the hole they got into.
OTOH - Folks thinking this is aimed at the unstable subgrade problem that is out there, are sorely mistaken. Putting out a sugar coating over a bad subgrade fixes nothing. Attacking a symptom may not solve the root problem.
Over the past several years CSX has been distributing ballast out the ying-yang. There are generally 15 active ‘high speed’ ballast trains working between quarries and distribution areas at any one point in time - more than I have seen in the 20 years preceeding. The CSX derailment mentioned in the FRA notice, actually happened on Metro-North trackage, not CSX.
Was the writer of that bulletin being paid by the word? Seems to me he could have said what he had to say in less than one-tenth the number of words.
Balt: What are the active quaries locations / names ?
The ones in my area are Leslie, MD, Verdon, VA & Trego, VA.
Other divisions have their own ‘local’ suppliers.
Of course he (she) could have done so. However, he’s a federal bureaucrat. He’s not paid to be productive; his contribution to the organization may very well be measured by the length of his output.
Correction: The FRA notice did not claim it was on CSX trackage.
Highlighted Accident—On July 18, 2013, at approximately 8:29 p.m., northbound CSX Transportation Train Q70419 derailed at Milepost 9.99 while traversing the No. 2 Main Track on the Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company’s Hudson Line. FRA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the accident.
When CSX gets mentioned, people stop reading!
Ouch!!