jeez, were the two UP locomotives SD70ACe’s, or SD90macs? But I saw this sotry last night in maryland, how many died?
My sympathies for all the victims and their families.
My question is this: The locomotives look to be fairly intact, any word on the crews’ conditions?
Brad
I think they were 2 SD90mac’s, wow, I just hope and pray for the best for the families that are involed in this accident. It seems to me that there wa aeither a signal error OR operator error, either way lives were lost such a sad event.
This is very sad. . .
I grew up only a few miles from this area of Chatsworth and have railfanned there many times.
Two SD70Ace units were the Union Pacific units involved.
It will be interesting to find out in a few months from the NTSB what really caused this.
This morning’s Sacramento Bee stated that the death toll could be anywhere between 23-30 people, most of the deaths occuring when the lead Metrolink car accordioned into the locomotive.
I probably shouldn’t say this, because this is TOTAL speculation, but it seems to me that the line from Los Angeles to as far north as San Luis Obispo is quite heavily traveled by commuter trains, while UP uses their Coast Line for freight pretty lightly–only 8 trains a day from the last I’ve heard (4 each way from LA to San Jose). And I understand that UP freights are dispatched from Omaha, NB, which is a long, LONG way from Southern California.
Tom
Death toll stands at 18, possibly 19. The metrolink power telescoped into the first car upon impact, they expect to find additional bodies under the wreakage once heavy equiptment is brought in to remove the locomotives. Train 111 departed LA Union at 3:23 destined for Moorepark.
According to Metrolink and Union Pacific, train 111 should have taken the siding at Chatsworth to allow priority to the UP freight, this will be a prime focus of the investigation, human failure. Unless the big yellow has changed things, this is non CTC terrority.
Dave
Margaritaman, pardon me but you put 56 photographs in your photobucket; that’s fine but displaying all 56 photographs is more than "some pics and is just a little excessive for the topic at hand. I had to shave twice scrolling to the next entry!
Now! to the words of Rudyard Kipling:
East is East;
And West is West;
And never the twain shall meet;
As long as they stay on separate twacks!
Yeah, but you can’t depend on the NTSB to give you the whole truth either…
Looks like the anti-climbers did their jobs. With closure speeds of around probably 100mph and the fact that it happened on a curve, I doubt the crews had much time to react. (or jump…)
I’m amazed the second and third Metro cars stayed on the rails.[:O]
"Scuze me, Loathar, but the NTSB has a reputation as one of the most independent and respected accident investigation bodies in the world. If you have some evidence to the contrary, I’d appreciate your sharing it with all of us. Otherwise, you are casting a shadow on the character of some very committed and dedicated people. I have worked with some of these folks and thought they were serious professionals. If you know of instances of malfeasance, I’d certainly like to know about them. If not, please do be careful of inadvertently injuring the reputation of people you’ve never met and don’t even know by name. I’m sure that is not soemthing you would want to do casually.
I think this topic is in danger of exceeding itself in view of some of the comments. It would also be best handled on the prototype forum at trains magazine.com. So, I am locking this, and invite you to offer your opinions or to simply read and empathize with those who are struggling to makes sense of and to endure their dispair this day over on that forum.
-Crandell