I was watching the news when they had a story of a train derailment in the area. The anchor said that 5 boxcars derailed. The video showed a Spine-car that was loaded with piggybacks. You would think that the reporter would know enough to realize the he/she has no clue about trains and should get assistance in identifying the type of car. Of course, one would expect the reporter to recognize a trailer. [sigh] [banghead]
Where did this happen? We have no idea where “in the area” is.
By definition, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you won’t know when you’ve found it.
This reporter (and many others) simply has no clue - it’s still a “choo-choo” and the only name they know for a railroad car is “boxcar”. Same thing happened with our runaway incident here.
Some Local News stations still read something about Amtrak while showing a small photo of a Steam Locomotive with the word “file” under it.
A few years ago in Spokane, the news anchor read a story about a grass fire caused by a “United Pacific” train.
I hate to admit the newscasters may be right, is anyone really interested that a rail car falls off the track, c’mon now, it isn’t that interesting, no damage, no deaths, no injuries, no environmental damage, no real world impact, the whole incident probably lasted 25 minutes, and the line was back in action with no damage done, priorities folks, priorities.
The news director thought it was important enough to report the derailment. So I say, they should get it right instead of saying a “boxcar” And then they sometimes follow up with a “safety tip” or a “health tip.” Makes me wonder if they give poor information about those topics as well.
SAY IT WITH ME: SPINE CAR, NOT BOXCAR!!! [:D]
“I must not tell lies…”[;)]
It was near Bowles, CA.
BNSF had a couple cars derail (appr. 3) on a stockton - willow sprgs Z. Bowles, Ca - near Fresno.
In order for the newscaster to have been right, Spine-Cars must be a type of boxcar.
Trucker cause major damage in Hit and Run…
A early morning accident caused major damage when a crazed trucker possibly intoxicated was arrested and charged with Hit and run accident … the driver billy joe john boy doe , from macon GA. was arested and charged with hit and run . police recieved the report of a brown in color 1941 chevy pick up truck left the road and hit 2 trash cans then stop just as it knocked over a bird bath then backed up and left when the truck was stopped 2 blocks later the drive was questioned and reported he only had 2 cups of coffee as he fell face first on the lawn he was parked on while being tazed. damage at the sceen was the bird bath was chipped and lost 1 gal of water. A eye witness to the event said it was terrible I saw him comming right towards the trash cans then he hit the birdbath, its amazing nobody was hurt, The police tried to make a crime scean up but failed as the neighborhood dogs kept running off with the evidence from the trash cans. A sheriffs deputy was reported saying with one more bad guy off the street we can all sleep safer tonight.
I heard about this derailment too. Which channel was this on? Just wanting to know since I live about 25 rail miles from it.
I think that if the reporter had said “articulated spine car” a lot more people would be saying “huh?” than they did over “box car”. Still, “freight car” would have been more accurate when talking to the uninitiated.
There are very few journalists who can be trusted to get things right. And even when they do, there may be copy editors who alter things to suit their own whims. Trust me on this–I’ve been there. I had a huge newspaper article in which the railroad name was edited to “Grand Truck” each and every time.
I’m sure that fans of other things would say the same thing if journalists were covering something in their field. I remember an editorial in the paper I was working for–in a town that practically lives on the water, the editor-in-chief/owner/publisher said something about a boat making so many “knots an hour”. I pointed out to a proofreader that a knot is a nautical mile per hour, so this expression of the boss’s was redundant at best and ridiculous at worst, and she told me, “You’re right, but would you want to try and correct him?”
I don’t expect anyone in the media to know difference between a spine car, boxcar or hopper car or the name of railroad compaines. Its no big deal. We know what they are and that is what counts. Getting info on a derailmnt from the media is a waste of time. Best source on that is someone you know that works for the rr. That source is most reliable. A couple wks ago, BNSF had a mainline derailment in town which involved about five cars, including a load of pellets which turned over & blocked the LaJunta Sub for about 16 hours. The local newspaper had a few photos w/ a very short story which basically stated nothing important. Other than a hazmat problem, rr derailments generate little interest from the general public except from the very few of us out there who have some interests in railroads.
Or how about the local media where I live refering to BNSF as “Burlington Northern St. Tropez.” No joke.
SF, the Style Manuals I’ve seen (all credible publications use one or another of these) carry the correct and proper names of the major railroads. Print media have the chance to get things right. A “live” reporter should know enough to correctly name the principal industries, institutions, landholders, and utilities in his own town or coverage area. Just the fact that one person in 3000 in the entire country knows anough about railroads (by virtue of being a reader of Trains) to catch a mistake like that should be incentive enough to get things right.
The common units for measuring acceleation in English units is feet per second per second (ft/s^2). Since a knot is nautical mile per hour, a knot per hour is nautical mile per hour puer hour. This would make knots per hour (or knots an hour) a measurement of acceleration, which as far as I know is never used.
The report in this case was not live.
Here’s a good one: dug out of the ole’ scrapbook a newspaper article from 1984 on a minor accident which involved a switch engine clipping a truck @ 13th st in Wichita,KS. The rr involved was the Wichita Terminal Association which has always used power from the city rrs on a yr by yr rotation. Because of the fact that a Missouri Pacific eng was being used by WTA @ that time, the newspaper report listed a Missouri Pacific train involved in the accident even though it was a WTA crew working on WTA trks. on a unrelated note, WTA is the switching/terminal company in town owned half by BNSF & UP and began operating in 1889.