I was Youtube surfing when I found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qx-dmdrC3c&feature=related
Then I was checking Facebook and BLMA models had posted this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Nq632eV6I
It isn’t their video, but it is interesting. The conductor must not have set the switch properly.
Man! That 2nd video was incredible! Makes me greatly appreciate the phrase that professional railroaders often use: “Railroading is a dangerous game!” It’s annoying when I read or hear comments from people that state that train crew members are “overpaid”. Of course ignorance is bliss; especially today.
Personally as much as I’m a hardcore railfan, one of the fears that I’ve had is being at a grade crossing in a car as a train cruises by…a derailment like this occurs, and a freight car starts falling towards me! That’s scary. [:O]
I got the smae nightmare,too. I do most of my railfanning out in Baldwin, FL where the CSX/FEC railyard is, and my Dad and I like going to the mainlines to catch some trains (including the Tropicanna Express, on occasion) when the yard is quiet. Let me tell you, unless the red light for the dimond is lit, the trains are going about track speed (around 70 MPH) At that speed, any de-railment would be a disaster.
I don’t want to get hurt myself, and I definately don’t want to see someone else get hurt eather.
I got another story, of an Amtrak station, but I’d rather not think about that one. It’s just too scary, and I don’t want to think about the “What ifs” of that day…
I’ve seen track move under the weight of a train, but that is a bit much.
A good reason for a wider, less detailed view.
Though a derailment on my HO layout may be irritating, annoying and even a bit expensive, my problems would be nothing compared to the least involved member of that crew. Glad I don’t have their repair bills, mine are bad enough.
Be careful,
I doubt that. You can see that he shoved the lever down until it locked and he looked at the points to make sure they were lined. So absent any other information it looks like the conductor did everything he was supposed to do. I would look for defective track first based on the video.
I’ll guess it was defect on a freight car. Maybe a broken wheel or something like that.
Imagine that happening with open-top cars full of coal, or worse, offal from a meat packing plant.
my how things have changed. crews work more safely these days. i would have been expected to drop off and run ahead to get the switch and then hop back on when the power went by. but then that was decades ago.
grizlump
Interesting video on the second one. I’d guess broken rail, probably right by or after the frog as they surmise. Makes for a bad day (long day) for the train crew.
Been there, done that.
Larry
I’ve seen some bad tarck but that looks like there is a tie or two or three missing. I am surprised there wasn’t a derailment there.
The second one I can just imagine the conductor and engineer’s conversations at home “not tonight, honey. I had a bad day at the office…”
OMG!! I can’t believe they caught that derailment on camera! It sure doesn’t take much for those cars to get so tangled because of all the weight of the trailing cars.
That was crazy…
Looking and listening to the second video it is hard to tell where the derailment started. What I did notice is all the flange noise started after the second loco was about partway through the turnout and got worse as the train kept going. Find the source of the flange noise and you will have the reason why this derailment occurred.
The first video was cool in the way the track was pumping the spikes out of what was left of the ties.
Pete
I have the same fear. Especially double stacks and any flat car with a large open load. That is why I always park my truck a little farther away from the crossing if I say any train approaching.
Wow! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome & frightening.
I hate to see the US going into high speed passenger service on rails, if they can´t even handle a freight train inching forward with out a derailment. We don´t want to see pictures like this one:
12 years ago, this train derailed while doing 125 mph and crashed into a bridge, killing 101 people. One of the worst rail tragedies in Germany.
In the first video it seems that there might be some sort of water damage deep in the roadbed. Maybe a water spring or of run-off that hasn’t been draining properly has washed out the base. I’ve seen trackage move, but not that bad.
In the second video I see things on this major carrier that I never saw around home. My 5,000 population hometown is rural and they lock every switch with a pad lock. I’m not saying the conductor didn’t throw the switch correctly but I know he didn’t unlock and lock it. The flange noise someone mentioned. Doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to me. I heard it all the time while walking the tracks to go hunting and fishing. It might have something to do with steel on steel at low speeds. We had 5 to 15 mph speed limits on all the track in the area. Someone else said it was just inching along. No, that inching along when the rail fans noticed the car on the ground was probably almost to 5 mph already. I wonder if CSX has a copy of this or why they didn’t confiscate the original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11qWro1LzQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11qWro1LzQ&feature=related
more fun. Just type bad train track into youtube
Looking at the second video, it does appear that swtich was not locked down, and he had to give it a few extra stomps to get it down in the first place. I’ll bet it popped up, just a little bit, which gave enough of a bite to finally pick it open after a few cars.
That last one - I’ll bet that crew holds their breath every time the go over that, hoping it won;t be THEIR train that becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back and the rail finally rolls over completely.
I saw a minor incident one time - there was a rather decript siding to a mill of some sort that got loads of wood on those center spine bulkhead flats. I happened to be coming home from work exactly when they were switchign this industry, so I pull off to watch. The siding was pretty much rails on mud - ties were barely evident and ballast, forget it. As the backed a loaded car past the train stopped on the main, the siding sank in the dirt so much that it tipped the car over and it fouled the standing train.Since they were barely moving to begine with, it didn;t know anythign off the rails, but it was wedged in there. The crew walked around it for a while, trying to figure out if there was anythign they could do, then finally just shut downt he loco and hopped in the other one (this train operated push-pull, with a loco at each end since there were no turning facilities on the branch) and headed back to their terminal. Next morning when I went ot work there was a large crane rolled in (highway, not rail) lifting the leaned over car back upright. I assume they blocked it up so they could move the rest of the train, but it was all cleared away when I got home that night.
–Randy
That Minnesota Valley track is something else, but I still think the worst I have seen on video is that mess posted on the Guilford a few months back.
Back about 15 years ago I saw a stretch of CSX mainline near Lansing, Michigan, that had a washout under one rail. The rail sagged quite a few inches as each truck rolled over it. There was basically a big mud puddle under the track just off the grade crossing and the constant pushing of the trains just shoved the ballast down into the dirt or out to the side. Once I saw the first locomotive do the shimmy-shake I backed well away from there! It had obviously been going on for some time.
George V.