There will be no ‘report’. No HAZMAT or loss of life was involved, just another day of recovering from what reality throws at an operating Class 1 railroad, someplace or another. There may be some revised local operating instructions, or not - the Car Dept. may get some revised instructions, or not.
The train was loaded within 74 tons of the 10800 ton limit for head end powered trains on Baltimore’s Belt Line, through the Howard Street Tunnel. Set off about 2K tons at Bayview and picked about 6K tons. Car involved was in the pick up. When train stopped at the East End of Bayview Yard to perform its work, the rear of the train fouled the West End. The pickup consisted of 3 tracks off the yard - yard is downhill to the East and each track of the pickup was secured by 10% hand brakes + 3 as required by local rules. Set off and remaining train on Main track also had to be secured by 10% hand brakes + 3. The time to accomplish all this work was approximately 4 hours.
Ah! So there was a pre-existing defect. Makes sense, from what I have heard the knuckle is deliberately designed to be the weakest link so it will break first in case of an overstress, and is relatively easy to replace/fix compared to a pulled/broken drawbar or major failure like this.
Train building seems to be getting worse and worse these days, out here CN likes to put autoracks and centrebeams on the head end of a loaded grain train for some reason… and then they act all surprised when it comes apart even when the Engineer does everything right.
Well, that explains the circumstances that led to the car’s untimely departure. Did the “thinking” involve duct tape? I would think that any repairs that involved chains would scream out “Rear End Only!”
Your description of the circumstances of the pickup also says a bit. Each of the three cuts no doubt was stretched before handbrakes were released, so our poor covered hopper had its defect exacerbated post-repair and post-inspection.