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UP train derails in eastern Kansas after colliding with dump truck
I’ve often wondered if train crews are required to wear seat belts, or even shoulder harnesses like pilots do?
It could only help in these truck collisions like this. The crew wouldn’t be flying around the room if something happens…?
Probably a union thing…
The UP rail line in question actually runs from Coffeyville to Kansas City and sees mostly northbound traffic. The line from Fredonia to Chanute was former Santa Fe which was purchased by the South Kansas and Oklahoma in 1991 and abandoned around 2000. There is no direct rail line between Fredonia and Chanute now.
This is meant to be generic and not representative of all T&E crews thinking:
In 1960, and until the mid ‘70s, hitting a vehicle did not threaten a derailment, at least where I ran engines, and I and we blew-up a bunch of vehicles…then, one of us died after a derailment which happened after his train hit a trailer load of Hershey’s chocolate.
We weren’t very worried, except about the truck’s contents (such as Gasoline), until then…
Our locomotive units, essentially battering rams, weighed at that time weighed about 125 to 135 tons, the 4-axles, or 325,000 to 409, 000 pounds, our 6-axles.
To feel fear then, when we had none, when our engines weighed 100 tons, (some yard engines to, for all the others), 115 tons to 185 tons?
What happened?
Wha’ ssup?
…
Can’t understand how one can miss a train.
A truck can cause a derailment if it gets caught in the tractors frame. If the train hits a van amids the truck cargo makes a lot of mess for someone(the trucking company responsible and their insurance company) to clean up.
The exception is any type of trailer with a strong steel beam or cargo that can derail the locomotive(50’ long pieces of steel rebar comes to mind or I beams).
If this gets under the frame of a locomotive, especially at speed, it can and does derail trains.
Mr. Carlin suggests that something has changed from the time when he operated locomotives. I really don’t think anything has changed. I can recall two highway collisions near my hometown “back in the old days” (50s-60s), which resulted in major train derailments. Both involved steel hauling trucks. Yet, collisions with less massive highway vehicles (such as dump trucks) can cause derailments because parts of the vehicle can become lodged under the pilot, thereby tearing up track structure.
Our locomotive “battering rams” still are the object with the highest mass in most, if not all, highway collisions. Seat belts are not required for this reason. (It’s not a “union thing”, it’s a physics thing.) Also, crew members don’t “fly around” inside a locomotive cab during a highway crossing collision. What can happen in a derailment is that, if the locomotive overturns, a person can fall from one side of the cab to the other, or impact with the earth or objects (i.e. freight cars on nearby tracks, signal emplacements, boxes, abutments, etc.) breaks out locomotive windows causing the cab to fill with debris. Neither seat belts nor air bags would enhance safety under these circumstances. The danger to locomotive cab occupants is greatly reduced, though not eliminated, by the “Safety Cab” (wide body) design of most modern road locomotives.
Mr. TM Dupee please permit a couple of of comments about your letter.
Change from “when he ran locomotives…”
Please modify that to “while he ran locomotives…”
I “went firing” in spring of '60 and retired in early summer of 2002; I worked as many main track local frts, pool freights, and psgr trains as I could. Switch engines were a little more favored than ebolla virus.
Something evolved during that time. Truckloads of I-beams and rebar were not prevalent; but duly recognized as train wreckers, a truckload of crushed, flattened automobiles put the units, SDP45s, and 11 of 14 cars of the days NO !2, a Daylight, into a cauliflower field, Newark, Ca. around 1970.
But, the stuff you pointed out, and other stuff, like tank trucks, acids, gases, petro’s; no (denying) problemo’s.
Because most of our engines had snow plow pilots, a false sense of security may have existed…cars and trucks, deflected, treated like drifted Sierra Concrete/Cement…not familiar with the High Country, that’s Sierra Nevada snow…
.
There will be a job opening at the Wilson County Road and Bridge Department tomorrow. There will also be lawsuits filed against them by UP for the damage that was caused. And the local taxpayers will foot the insurance/repair bill.
A couple of comments concerning this accident. The county truck was not a typical dump truck. Rather, it was a tractor-trailer semi. It was carrying a full load of rock. It was coming from a rock quarry near the right of way. The road leading to the crossing is on a curve with a short sight distance. The tailer became lodged between the locomotive and the crossing gate mast which for whatever reason did not give way. The trailer caught one corner of the locomotive causing it to lift toward the opposite rail and derail. The lead SD70MAC rolled over down the adjacent embankment with trailing SD70ACe ending up crosswise to the track next to it. The empty covered hopper grain cars piled up on top of the lead unit. There is a 40 mph speed restriction at that point on the railroad. There is also a report that the truck had been reported several times for defective brakes. The two crew members and the truck driver survived and were treated at a local hospital. Reports indicate that there were no serious injuries. The railroad was back in service 24 hours later. This link provides information and photos:
http://www.koamtv.com/story/27860044/train-crash-in-wilson-county
Bill Barber
Missouri