[:(]
Here are several news stories. There is video on CNN and MSNBC…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26680935#26680935
http://www.knbc.com/slideshow/news/17462209/detail.html
http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7422496&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.3.1
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26680908/
It’s on the news here in Sacramento right now. Metrolink and UP at Chatsworth. So far, there are 2 fatalities. Head-on collision, freight cars all over the place. KCRA is covering it right now. Be right back.
Tom
Okay, not much news about HOW it happened, but Chatsworth is single track in the San Fernando Valley, and it was rush hour when Metrolink is running heavily patronized. Two confirmed dead, over 29 people injured, at least 10 critically. One Metrolink car overturned, caught on fire. Fire was put out quickly. Collision happened on a wide curve.
Hopefully someone from SoCal on the Forum will have more news.
Tom
Here’s another few links…
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-09/42322899.jpg
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=6388279
There’s a third dead. If you watch the MSNBC video, you can see a lot of the UP train accordianned…
I have been watching this on the news since it happened. A UP freight collided with a Metrolink engine and three cars. I did not read any of the above news articles but I have watched the entire thing play out. All I can say is that it looks really bad.
The Metrolink engine is now about 2/3rds of the way into the first car. There should be 9 upper windows and three on the middle deck. Only 8 of those upper windows are in tact. From what I can see on the TV about 5 or more panels are missing from the car. The trailing two cars stayed on the track. I will try to find out more tonight and tommorrow. It looks bad. I count 6 dead, but I am not sure, and none of the news channels are getting the facts straight.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the wreck and thier families who don’t know where they are. God bless.
Looks like the cab car hit the loco… I just watched the CNN video.
No, the locomotive is embedded in the cab car. There’s one shot where you can see the lead truck and fuel tank still on the the tracks. [:(]
Yes, the locomotive is jammed in the first coach. Death toll has risen to 11 confirmed and most likely more still unrecovered.
How sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones. The people at Metrolink and Union Pacific have some explaining to do so that we can work to reduce the chance of future tragic events like this one.
I wouldn’t like to get too philosophical about such an occurrence, but such unpredicatable events demonstrate that our lives can be taken from us at any time. Yet we should never fear death; instead we should do the opposite. We should take the time we have in life and make the best of every experience that we have, good or bad. After all, in the end, life is may be long or short, but its value is what we make of it.
We in SoCal see these trains all the time. Just part of the every day hustle and bustle. A few weeks ago I was given a shop tour as I represent one of their many vendors. I thought you folks might like to see some pics I took to give you a better idea of exactly what crashed. These are not small commuter cars by any means. My thoughts and prayers are with those folks who have lost loved ones and who are still yet awaiting word on their loved one(s).
It is an awful wreck and there are several fatalities. It might end up being Metrolink’s worse wreck.
I’d hate to speculate this early, but I think Metrolink may have ran a signal or the signals were not operating properly.
This Map shows where the collision took place. If you pan down (south) a bit you will see where the line goes down from double tracks to a single track due to several tunnels to the northwest. Metrolink had just left Chatsworth and was heading north. UP was heading south. The wreck occurred close to the signals where Metrolink would have been held. UP may have also ran a signal, but this is northwest and far from the wreck site.
The Coast Starlight and other trains will obviously be disrupted for several days.
Terrible tragedy. I’m praying for those whose families may be affected by this.
As of this am, 12 confirmed dead with more expected - maybe as many as 20. Between Ike & this, there is almost no ther news. My sympathies also to the family’s.
Then don’t do it.
And yet you go right ahead and speculate.
Mark.
The death toll has risen to 15 confirmed… [:(]
Wa-hoa, buddy. Where was the need to turn such an event when people should be coming together into a personal slingfest?
I agree that we should wait until the governing organization offers up a real answer with the data not available to us. However, the guy just offered his opinion, whether or not enough speculation and know-it-all-ism have already been done in this thread. Never take an idiom too literally, because SW was simply trying to suggest that he knew the futility of speculating too much now.
Mate, if you think my comments constitute a “slingfest”, you have an incredibly thin skin. If I start a “personal slingfest”, you’ll know about it.
Can you explain what you mean by “such an event when people should be coming together”?
Which counts for nothing. My comment stands - if you don’t know what happened in this incident, keep your speculation to yourself.
Mark.
I’m feeling like the meaning of the post was lost when it was innocently split.
The RRS will most likely NEVER tell us what happened, or it will be a fine print in the middle of the car ads. Case in point: Avon runaway. Speculation is human nature to want to know or have a reason fro something.
My condolences to the families.
EDIT: NPR puts the count to 17 unfortunate souls
The NTSB publishes their accident reports, so does the FRA. You don’t need to rely on the railroad to tell the story.
Speculation doesn’t give you answers or reasons, it’s pointless at this stage.
Mark.
As of right now, AP is reporting 17 fatalities…that was right by our old house in the Valley. 
It was common to see passenger and freight on the same tracks, but someone was asleep at a switch somewhere (excuse the pun) My heart goes out to all those people.
Well Mark, I think it was the lack of concern for the accident here and your actions in this thread that i disliked. This will be my last response to you in this thread, and remember that I agree with you that although speculation is unnecessary, it doesn’t mean turning a somber occasion into personal squabbles. And before I go on, I know well that you are a reasonable person and an accomplished modeler, and I hope that you will offer me at least the first of those two considerations as you read.
Not once in your first post in this thread did you mention the folks who lost their lives in a moment. Now of course you don’t have to, but it surely doesn’t paint you as a compassionate person if you don’t. Frankly, it paints you as someone who is cold and hard behind the keyboard, which is perhaps what you want, but it also suggests something else, perhaps insecurity underneath. Were you to enter a discussion in person where people were expressing concern for the victims of an accident and decided that your first statement will be to tear down some participant in the discussion without saying anything in regard to the actual accident, I can guarantee that you’d receive a number of cold stares and a forceful suggestion to get back on the highway.
Speculation is nearly pointless when it is uneducated, but educated speculation is the root of all discovery. And although most of the speculation here is uneducated (without the internal data), anyone with psychology background will tell you that the majority of humans want possible answers, regardless of right or wrong. The responses posted here are speculations that could be right or wrong, and everyone reading them knows that they could be right or wrong. But should we always wait for the government to give us answers? That’s a one very bad road to go down. If you want to say that speculation is entirely pointless, you’re going to have to produce some solid data to support such a claim.
Generally, an even
