It happened a couple of years ago.I beleive it was in Ohio. A freight train broke loose and ran for about 30-40 miles,before somwone could climb aboard and bring it to a stop.With all the high tech out there,how does it happen. If the train runs through a red aspect,doesn’t the signal trip the auto brake mechanizim on the engine to bring it to a stop??? Also if there’s no one at the throttle isn’t some type of presure release take place that activated the braking??? What’s the story??? thanks Easter.
Human error
Throttle was pulled wide open.
Adrianspeeder
In most territory there is no automatic brake – only a few lines have that. I seem to recall the story, and the resulting investigation found, as MC said, ordinary human error.
I was working on IF desk when this happened on IE (Toledo Br.)
The dispatcher working was Chris Mather.
Synopsis:
On May 15, 2001, at approximately 12:35 p.m., DST, an unmanned CSX yard
train consisting of one model SD-40-2 locomotive, 22 loaded, and 25
empty cars, 2898 gross trailing tons, departed Stanley Yard, which is
located in Walbridge, Ohio. The uncontrolled movement proceeded south
for a distance of 66 miles before CSX personnel were able to bring the
movement under control. At the time of the incident, the weather was
cloudy with light rain. The ambient temperature was 55 degrees
Fahrenheit. There was no derailment of equipment or collision. There
were no reportable injuries as a result of the incident.
Circumstances Prior to Incident:
Yard crew Y11615, consisting of one engineer, one conductor and one
brakeman, reported for duty at Stanley Yard, Walbridge, Ohio, at 6:30
am, DST, May 15, 2001. After the normal job briefing with the
trainmaster, crew Y11615 performed routine switching assignments until
approximately 11:30 am, at which time the crew received new instructions
and a second job briefing. A few minutes before 12:30 p.m., the crew
entered the north end of track K12, located in the classification yard,
with the intent to pull 47 cars out of K12 and then place these cars on
departure track D10. Locomotive CSX 8888 was positioned with the short
hood headed north. The engineer was seated at the
controls on the east side of the locomotive.
The locomotive coupled to the 47 cars on track K12, as instructed and
planned. The air hoses between the locomotive and the cars were not
connected, as is normal during this kind of switching operation. The air
brakes on the cars were therefore inoperative. The brakeman notified the
engineer by radio to pull north from K12. After the rear or 47th car
passed the brakeman’
[:0]Yikes!
Did the engineer loose his job?
More background info here:
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/index.htm
includes some pictures, and the final report listed above[tup]
Isn’t this the runnaway where some pin head cop tried to shoot a hole in the fuel tank with his .45 ?
CSX DISPATCHER.Thanks for the imput.An amaaaaaaaaaziiiinng incident! Easter
Not all rail lines in the country have Automatic Train Stop, in fact very few have that level of technology.
The train did not ‘break loose’. The now ex-engineer, placed the throttle in a run position and dismounted the locomotive to throw a switch. The engineer was unable to reboard the locomotive and the train continued on. For this to have occured the ex-engineer had to deactivate the ‘dead man’ system so that the engine could operate without anyone at the controls. The engineer and for that matter the conductor of this run broke numerous rules that have been designed to prevent this kind of occurence.
It is fortunate in this incident that no one was killed or injured and no collisions took place.
The engineer and conductor in this incident are both former employees as they were teminated after this incident.
ATS is very limited in what it can do in a situation like this, even if it was available.
Before they put some of that Hollywood high tech crap in a locomotive, they ought to put it in every rubber tired vehicle out there: (1) so the public can put up with all the false applications, (2) because these type incidents happen so VERY much more frequently with highway vehicles, and (3) let somebody else be the beta test site .
(Plus, if it works, the
CSX Dispatcher:
Thanks for the detailed and informative explanation of this incident! It is very interesting to see what really happened.
BrianLM007
CSX dispatcher
Do you have any more stories.
The engineer was fired. There was an article on this in redaers digest a while back.
Close.
The pinhead cop saw a red fixture on the side of the locomotive, and thought it was an engine kill switch, so he shot at it several times, not knowing it as a fuel line fixture
So isn’t there some rule against boarding a moving movement? Did they write up this Hosfeld guy for breaking the rules?
you can board moving equip in an emergency.
OK thanks.
Sounds to me like so long as it was done to save the RR grief , they don’t have a problem with it… But if the employee does it for his own reasons, then they can’t allow the infraction to go unpunished.
I love dual standards.
Everything is up to interpretation, just so happens that the company seems to skew the rules in their favor and always place blame on us. Warranted or not.