We’ve been getting a lot of questions coming in about the Amtrak wreck in Nevada. We’ll have an update on News Wire this morning that should answer a lot of questions, but I’d like to open us up to questions from the audience. What would you like to know about the accident, the equipment involved, and the history of Amtrak wrecks? Post your question here and we’ll pose it to our writers, editors, and contacts in the field. I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to answer every question, but we’ll keep an eye on what people are asking on this thread and do our best.
Now, the floor is open. What would you like to know?
I think that most of my questions aren’t going to be able to be answered for a while: the investigators have to do their work. Questions like the death toll can be answered with updates. Questions about the condition of the driver or the truck, or the crossing protection, will be borne out only after an investigation.
I will breathe a lot easier after hearing any official statement that absolves Amtrak and UP from any blame or responsibility here.
The only story I see on the newswire is the one posted 6/24. My concern is the confusion surrounding the event including reports of from 1 to 6 deaths and an unconfirmed number injured. What I’ve heard is that the truck was probably going at least 70mph legally on the open highway and left at least 300 feet of skid marks with one speculation that the truck could have hit the train while doing only 15 mph! It will be interesting to see how the investigation goes and what it finds.
Thanks, guys. Obviously, a lot of the questions we all have won’t be answered until NTSB issues its report. That typically takes a year or more. Bob Johnston is working on a News Wire story as we speak that will bring everything up to date.
Given that Don Phillips has retired from day to day coverage of railroad events, it will be good to have other reporters with knowledge of the field getting the story.
In my comments on the topic, I tried to be clear on what I could see from photos and video (I was able to get the damaged car numbers from photos) and what was just a guess. No doubt you will stick to the facts and be clear on any questions that will remain unanswered pending completion of the investigation.
One thing I wonder. Given that the Superliner equipped trains usually have sleepers at the head end, why the a coach second behind the transition/dorm? I know the consist setup is not locked in stone, but it seems possible that was a specific reason for the consist on this train. The change from the usual arrangement may have saved many from injury or death, as the coach may have been lightly occupied as compared to a sleeper. During this busy travel season, sleeper accomidations on the CZ are usually sold out.
Is this wreck just sitting there while they measure everything or will Hulcher come in and cut it all up for scrap and open the track. In the past they kept the wreckage around as “evidence” for a long while. I would think that UP and Amtrak are anxious to get back to normal operations.
The NTSB is looking at the burned-out cars at the scene and has also requested that coach 35006 (smoke damaged, but movable) stay at Sparks so it can be examined.
Bob Johnston’s story is going to be posted to wire momentarily. Here’s his answer, which is contained in the story:
Owing to a lengthy disruption of the Empire Builder by North Dakota flooding at Minot, the Zephyr’s summer-only Chicago-Denver “cut-off” sleeper has been running through to Em
I believe I said that. I figured that if the truck skidded 300 feet, it must have decelerated a lot. But with a 70 mph speed limit, the truck may have been doing 70-80 mph. Here is a link to a report saying that the truck could have required as much as 465 ft. to stop if it were going 70 mph:
Owing to a lengthy disruption of the Empire Builder by North Dakota flooding at Minot, the Zephyr’s summer-only Chicago-Denver “cut-off” sleeper has been running through to Emeryville to provide additional transcontinental capacity. This accounts for the decision to place the three sleepers at the end of the train; it also allows a coach attendant to handle the four roomettes in the transition sleeper sold for revenue space (the others are occupied by crew members and a few are set aside for Amtrak business travel)."
This, however, does not explain why the sleepers were on the rear the two times that my wife and I rode the CZ in April. I have the impression that “sleepers on the rear” is the standard operation on this train (I am not about to go into Salt Lake City to check the location of the sleepers every night, though). We had to walk the length of the train both times (wb each time); when boarding, we traveled around the engine and then back to our car; when detraining, we moved the length of the train until we could get around the engine before we went into the station. We were thankful it was not snowing when we came back.
Owing to a lengthy disruption of the Empire Builder by North Dakota flooding at Minot, the Zephyr’s summer-only Chicago-Denver “cut-off” sleeper has been running through to Emeryville to provide additional transcontinental capacity. This accounts for the decision to place the three sleepers at the end of the train; it also allows a coach attendant to handle the four roomettes in the transition sleeper sold for revenue space (the others are occupied by crew members and a few are set aside for Amtrak business travel)."
This, however, does not explain why the sleepers were on the rear the two times that my wife and I rode the CZ in April. I have the impression that “sleepers on the rear” is the standard operation on this train (I am not about to go into Salt Lake City to check the location of the sleepers every night, though). We had to walk the length of the train both times (wb each time); when boarding, we traveled around the engine and then back to our car; when detraining, we moved the length of the train until we could get around the engine before we went into the station. We were thankful it was not snowing when we came back.
It looks to me like it is a 45 degree intersection, or something similar to it. The trucks were driving northbound on Route 95.
We’ll keep working our sources to get more details about what the following truck drivers saw, as well as the engineer. At this point, we don’t know anything more than what’s being posted in the mainstream media.
By the way, I am taking the CZ to Denver early next month, so I have checked the train schedule and am also watching performance status. I noted that at the time of the wreck, the CZ was running almost 5 hours late. Due in Reno 8:30am.
Or a CB radio - but there’s no records of that available.
That would be ‘dead weight’ carried around. I don’t know if that would happen unless the FRA mandated it - and I’d be thinking that AFFF would be a more effective.
There are “clean agents” available that could probably provide some first aid fire suppression without the issues (like freezing) that would come from water or a foam solution.
But that would still be non-revenue dead weight (not to mention the revenue space that would be taken up). The cylinders can be 3-4’ in diameter, depending on capacity.
And it also assumes that in an incident such as this (which was a tad unusual, given the whole situation) that the fire suppression system remains intact.
As cold as it sounds, you also have to consider return on investment. While situations such as this incident are horrific, are major fires on Amtrak cars really so common as to require the thousands of dollars per car for initial installation and the cost of the ongoing maintenance? I’d opine that the vast majority of fires on Amtrak cars are well within the capabilities of the fire extinguishers they already carry.
…I’m certainly not the fire suppression expert. But with up to a couple hundred gallons of diesel fuel exploding all at once…I doubt if any {on board system}, could deal with a fire like this explosion would produce. {Built in sprinklers, etc…}.