A mishap on the Strasburg RR involving #475 and a backhoe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMIlQauLRB8&lc=UgwbfkyI68NwP-uc9ax4AaABAg.9hwb-I2OfLS9h
I enlarged the video to full-screen and I don’t think the damage is too bad. Hopefully the front flue sheet’s not impacted.
Yeah! Why was that backhoe parked on an active rail line!?!?!? [banghead]
There’s going to be some serious questions asked over this.
First of which will probably be why was the switch lined for the track the backhoe was on? I don’t think it’s part of the main line, I can’t see them parking a backhoe on the main.
And on the Strasburg of all places! [:O]
One could not see what the switch stand was indicating from that video.
However, it seems the operators did not see what the switch stand was indicating as the locomotive did not appear to be in emergency.
Here is a wider viewpoint that gives more information. Somebody has put together an interesting compendium of the incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS71HXT_wLc
It appears the switch stand was showing white to the mainline.
They’ll find it hard to live down having everyone on the right side waving to the coaches!
My take:
From what I can see, the backhoe was parked on a stub track, not on the main. I think the old steam crane you can see on that cam is parked there all of the time.
This raises the question of why the switch was left lined for said stub track. It also raises the question of why the crew of 475 didn’t notice the mis-alignment of the points.
And, if the target showed the switch aligned for the main/passing siding, why did no one notice the discrepancy?
As Balt says, plenty of blame to spread around.
I would opine that the smokebox door, etc were cast, which would explain why they broke the way they did.
40.00506623740313, -76.11316888143642
It looks to be at this location, Leaman Place Junction.
White building behind the locomotive.
Stub track, but in this aerial occupied by two covered hoppers.
That backhoe folded up to form a battering ram. I would suspect potential damage to many of the flues on the inside.
Hard to tell color from internet videos reposted 56,000 times to keep ahead of VRF copyright strikes. But going by shape: the target has a rectangle shape, which usually indicates diverging move. Straight moves are usually the upward diagonal shape.
Not that we target shoot.
Compendium video with several angles including a railcam aimed directly down the stub track.
Oh brother, it’s worse than I thought! Damn near the whole front of the smokebox shattered.
Hopefully the damage doesn’t extend back to the flue sheet but I can’t be sure.
Maybe I’m being optimistic but I don’t think what’s happened is beyond Strasburg’s people to repair.
I’m not seeing the most recent videos when I click on the links so if this has already been posted I apologize. But I saw this on Facebook today: https://www.facebook.com/christian.schluter.180/videos/2252195374942824/
Thanks Becky!
NDG’s posted some interesting links on this under “General Discussion.”
If nothing else, this incident will lead to discussions/lessons about operations, PR response, and damage control when there’s viral video of an incident. (sorry VRF, you just can’t use copyright strikes to simply make it go away)
You said it Zug! Especially in this day and age where cameras are everywhere.
Strasburg’s overreaction to the incident and VRF’s over-the-top response has become a meme in itself within the younger railfan community. On YouTube, VRF is going as far as having channels suspended and terminated for sharing the video. This is quite hypocritical as they haven’t done this to countless other viral (unauthorized) clips, some of which have propelled the channel to fame (Wabash Railfan or whatever his name is).
I also should point out that VRF clipped and recorded countless major events such as derailments at SFJ in Kansas City, vehicles being destroyed by trains at high speed, and even the Tucson shooting on Amtrak in which a DEA agent was killed. So the same company profiting off a video of a shooting is going crazy to stop an already viral video from spreading of a weeks-worth of repairs and no injuries. Yeah right.
And yes, the minute it happened yesterday and even now, the memes, recordings, and discussions (and VRF-SRR comments/criticisms) have been flying underground via Discord and text groups…
It’s sort of a Janet JAckson moment for the rail streaming service.
But I think it more has to do because unlike many of those other incidents Harrison mentioned, these cameras are hosted/located on the property of the subject matter.
We are living in a society that can’t stomach the real in reality if it doesn’t fit their pollyana version of reality.
The ‘reality’ shows on TV are scripted and edited to paint a unreal picture of ‘reality’.
Real reality is not pretty much of the time, things happen and people get hurt and die. With a sizable fraction of the country disavowing actual reality, a reality they have seen with their own eyes, REALITY is a big problem for the USA in the 21st Century.
I don’t see VRJ ‘riding herd’ on use of the video as any worse than the suppression of the Panhandle initial video (which showed the train being shoved into the accident site by the DPU). The incident has apparently not ‘topped the charts’ at Yahoo or other “news” pages, probably in no small part to the active damage control efforts.