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Missouri rail collision damages highway overpass
The Missouri state highway department now says the new highway bridge will cost $3.7 million and is expected to be finished in September.
It angers me that most of the national media included a comment about how this came on the heels of the commuter train crash in Connecticut. Anything to get viewers, I guess.
Let’s see…
2:30 a.m., hit several cars behind the locomotives=
UP crew asleep ???
The interlocking signal cabin recorder will tell the story.
Another PTC-preventable incident?
And now the train hitting the garbage truck in Maryland. Those reckless railroaders.
“2:30 a.m., hit several cars behind the locomotives=
UP crew asleep ???”
I thought the same thing at first. But what if the BNSF crew had been asleep and they just happened to go through the crossing before the UP freight? Even though it looks at first glance that the UP crew is at fault because they hit the BNSF train… Just don’t know yet who’s at fault.
Rockview Jct may be on a railroad map or timetable, but it is not on the official Missouri Highway Map. Chaffee is the nearest town.
Ira and Andy, don’t jump to conclusions. “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” this is also true for interlocking signals.
Both railroads know by now what happened.
You should never jump to conclusions until the NTSB come out with their findings. It spoils the investigators findings when people announce what they feel happened.
Two and a half days after it happens and we finally get a posting here, and it does not contain any new information, other than a quote from one of the two railroads, than we knew from web connections that operate 24/7.
In the 80’s I was MoPac Superintendent of this territory and was riding in the cab of UP8444 on a west bound passenger special with engineer Steve Lee at about 65 mph. We had a clear signal at the approach signal of the interlocking, but as we got closer the home signal turned red because as Frisco surfacing gang tamper occupied the crossing. We made a full service brake application ( not wanting to flat spot any wheels on 844 or the passenger equipment) and blew the whistle repeatedly. The tamper moved north clearing the crossing before we went through it. We notified the SSW dispatcher of
I do not believe PTC will ever completely eliminate all collisions. Murphy’s law applies. As an engineer that has done many Failure Error Mode and Critically Analysis, I can assure you that anything devised by humans will always have a possibility, however remote, of failure. Now as to railroaders, this past month should include the overturned truck crash and fire that shut down I-81 north of Harrisburg PA. This damaged both the ramp the truck was on and the overhead bridge from US322 to a tune of $15 million, and there was the truck that hit the I-5 bridge in WA state . Truckers 2, Railroaders 1.
Collision occured at 2:30am. Anyone want to place a bet that crew fatigue is going to come up?
I was following this all last weekend, even though I am on the other side of the state. At first I was willing to jump to conclusions that the UP must have run the light, however, after hearing that the BNSF was only eight cars into the crossing, who knows. I will be looking forward to reading the reports when they come out in a few years. The line was cleaned up and open to traffic by Monday, so UP worked fast to get the line open. My father is retired from MoDot and says that they will simply pull the final plans, and put it back up, as it is a “glue together” bridge (meaning it is a simple concrete/steel girder bridge).