August 8th approximately 2 a.m. Union Pacific had a derailment on the Hoffman swingbridge in St Paul. The one locomotives fuel tank was punctured and Spilled 32000 gallons of diesel into the Mississippi River.
Please excuse the picture quality as they we’re taking from my TV on the morning news.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation but it seemed to me from looking closely the bridge rails were not quite lined up perfect.
You would think with today’s technology they would have sensors that would show a green or red light a mile down the track from either direction telling the engineer if the rails are lined up correctly or not.
If you look at my two pictures above that were taken from the same news broadcast why is the tanker car between the two locomotives in one picture and missing on the next.
I was trying to post a third picture where the tanker car is at the end of the two locomotives but Imgur is not behaving for me right now. I don’t know, the different locations of the tanker car doesn’t make much sense.
PS. Also the positioning of the locomotives are in different positions on the bridge in all three pictures I have. This also does not make sense.
My take on the tank car location is that it was the first car in the train, after the two locomotives. All three derailed, but the trailing train didn’t. I expect the trailing cars were pulled off by the “new” locomotives. And that that set returned to pull the tank car off, once it was in a traveling position.
A very good video I just saw showed the two derailed locos still in position, and a possible crane truck replacing the tank car. And “new” locomotives.
In that video, it appears to me that one bridge rail is dramatically out of vertical alignment.
A properly built and maintained swing bridge will have appropriate safety interlocks. Including, frequently, approach signals. My guess is that there was a huge failure in maintenance and/or bridge inspection.
Oh, yeah. You don’t need “today’s technology” to do all this. It’s been figured out for upwards of 100 years.
[:|][*-)][:-^]… Okay Ed after your commentary now everything makes sense.
After your comment I re-looked everything over. My first picture was very blurry. There were two locomotives in front of the tanker car that derailed along with the tanker and two locomotives behind it behind it that didn’t derail… Or those two Locos were brought in afterwards to clean up the aftermath. Now everything is starting to make sense.
I hadn’t even had my coffee early that morning when I seen this on the news and it’s been kind of bothering me the rest of the week… thanks for clearing that up for me[:^)]
Still though. Isn’t there a railroad bridge attendant on duty at all these Bridges. And thier job is to overlook everything in case there is system failure?
If there WAS someone there, I would think they’d have noticed something. But I’m not there. Maybe I would have missed “it”, too.
But perhaps, the misalignment happened when the weight of the loco broke something. NOW we’re looking at failed maintenance. Or inspection.
Well, sort of. If they actually notice something. But they’re not bridge inspectors. So, no, they don’t “overlook everything”, in the sense that they are completely aware of all the operating variables.
I would like to think that IF a guy thought something was “funny”, he’d do something. Yes, I would.
This report says 2 locos were pulling one asphalt car, when one loco and the asphalt car derailed. Given what we know about the current state of reporting, reality may be different than what they want us to believe.
Nice clip Jeff. I never seen exactly how these things work.
See maybe one of those flap down do hickeys didn’t quite seat right, but that’s what I’m saying.
Isn’t it the UP bridge attendants job to oversee everything and make sure everything is on the up-and-up at the time of.
Why else is he sitting in the high tower or in the Little Shack in the middle at the top of the bridge.
This is my assumption… Someone was asleep at the switch… what else could it have been.
Sheepdog in the shack had plenty of time to call the wolf in the Loco… Had he been attentive to his job he would have overseen this.
It wasn’t the mechanical failures of the bridge that caused the accident. I believe It was a watchman’s failure of not doing his job and reporting it to the engineer approaching the bridge.
I could be wrong but the railroad has people watching for mechanical failure and that is their job in case mechanical failure does happen.
PS. I would love to hang up my tool belt and clean the lenses in my binoculars daily and have a job like this. Although I would have to pace in the Little Shack to still get my exercise[swg][(-D][(-D]
Are you sure the bridge is still tended by an employee? Maybe the traffic warrants it but maybe not. Some of the bridges around the Great Lakes are staffed only as needed.
You’re ready to fire the bridge operator for what could have been a defect on the car or locomotive?
Yes Ed, you have a good point. I suppose the amount of traffic could have something to do with it.
The bridge appears to have a white Shack in the middle. That doesn’t guarantee someone is in there I guess. Every lift bridge I have ever seen has an attendant. I would still think a swingbridge does to.
Your point also well taken with possible mechanical failure on the locomotive could have played a factor here.
No I’m not ready to fire that bridge attendant yet. Everything is speculatory until the facts surface in the end I guess… I just hope I don’t miss that.
PS Sometimes the news media doesn’t follow up on these things. If someone finds the results please post them here. Thanks
I talked to friends at my breakfast club this morning regarding this Hoffman swing Bridge train derailment.
This swingbridge does not have a bridge attendant/operator on site. It is regulated off site. Everything is transmitted to that site.
The person that inform me of this is a BNSF railroad retiree. He knew all about the Hoffman Bridge derailment and stopped me before I got done speaking half a sentence.
He informed me that the bridge was hit several years ago by a barge with some pretty significant structural damage. He also told me the repairs were made but probably not done well enough.
He went on to explain things like this. If a car has damage from an accident to the frame it can be realigned in a alignment rack. Big bridges kicked out of shape, not so much.
It was his thoughts this bridge is still significantly untrue. His thoughts one of the rail lockdowns didn’t seat quite right.
There should be an electrical switch under each of the four rail lockdowns. If it doesn’t seat properly, the electrical switch won’t throw. If the electrical switch won’t thrown, the approach signal will show red.
I’ll buy this one for a dollar favorite Ed… and you will remember this one
Before we were big kids, We were little. We played with our trucks in our big mud lairs. We just had a lot of fun and just barely enough precautions that nobody got hurt.
Then we came home and our Mother saw how dirty we were. She made us take all our clothes off by the back door before we entered the house.
I still believe there’s a warning signal on that back door, just like what’s supposed to be on the bridge. There had to have been My mom was always there at the back door before I got home… And you know what, I was just to damn dirty to spank.[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][swg]
At my house, there was a big washtub just inside the back door. And a mother could easily lift a kid from the back steps right into that washtub. For easy and complete cleaning.
Not having an employee on duty must be a fairly new thing, as I applied for that job with UP I’d guess around 2010 or so.
Keep in mind the weather has been hot, many consecutive days of 90+ temps. Could be the metal expansion from the heat eventually moved something just enough to be out of alignment to the point it caused the derailment.
p.s. I believe it was the tank car (or “tanker” as the local news called it) that leaked the fuel, not the engine??
