I don't normally discuss train wrecks other than tank car safety implications. But I read about three wrecks in one evening. That exceeds my rule of writing about a topic if I see it mentioned a couple of times within a couple of days. And an important part of the history of railroading is the improvement of safety.
The Janney (knuckle) coupler and air brakes are examples of equipment the railroads were required to convert to in the 19th century because they improved safety. Using roller bearings instead of friction bearings is an example of a rule that went into affect during the 20th Century to improve safety. (Roller bearings also reduced a lot of labor requirements. And, unlike coupler and air brake changes, not all cars had to change at the same time to be compatible. So the railroads converted most of their cars without a rule. But it is now a rule, and now museums have trouble getting cars they purchased transported to their museum because they are old and have friction bearings.) The replacement of hand signals with radios is a 1970s improvement.
Since at least 2014, the railroads have been replacing their relay-and-copper-wire-based signalling with computer-and-fiber-optics-based signalling to implement Positive Train Control (PTC). Unfortunately, newer is not always better. The crossing gates over Main Street in Downers Grove have had many false closings after the new equipment was cut over. (During the 40 years I lived in town with the old signalling equipment, I never saw a false closing.) They turned on PTC for BNSF commuter trains this year. To do that, they had to change the schedules because it takes longer to change the direction of the locomotive after arrives at the end of the line. The increased turnaround is cause by needing to reboot the PTC equipment. The new schedule caused a lot of overcrowding of some trains. Recently, I saw a headline in the Chicago Tribune about the trains having a 45-min delay because of signalling problems. And today [11-3-2018], WGN had a report blaming PTC for ongoing train delays and further delays of much needed engine and car replacements. (source)
Sometimes improved safety is not an invention but another safety rule. For example, outlawing the poling of cars and outlawing a flying switch. But these two rules no longer have much impact on a crew's productivity because carload rail service to industrial plants has practically disappeared compared to what it was a century ago.
Another safety rule that some railroads have written is that the trains must be completely stopped before someone can get on or off of it. That rule is currently controversial. When doing switching work it was quite common to get off and on a train that was moving at a walking speed. In fact, I've seen a 1940s NYC safety training video about the correct way to get on a slowly moving train. This rule is currently controversial because it does reduce the productivity of a crew.
Dave Ladislas Sr. posted the question: "Anybody recall the bad IC train accident over the Cal-Sag,on the bridge just N. of Riverdale in like late 1969 involving a coal train and an auto-rack train? I think the crew on the coal train was killed,a few autos ended up in the river,and still there,supposedly."
Jon Roma I was but a child when it took place on September 26, 1969, but I have read the accident report. The crew of a northbound train, Extra 5055 North, fell asleep due to the effects of fatigue and alcohol, passed stop signals, and rear-ended a standing train, Extra 1214 North.
The rear brakeman of Extra 1214 North, and the engineer and head brakeman of Extra 5055 North were killed.
David Daruszka
Daryl Guthrie. The NTSB report places the blame on the crew. https://www.jonroma.net/.../Railroad%20Accident...
I was surprised when I read the conductor's testimony. Obviously, he told what should have happened, not what did happen. The report indicates he should have prevented this accident by not letting the engineer get on the train in the first place because he must have been obviously drunk. I wonder if a conductor in the caboose can hear the horn blowing for crossings. Or does the horn facing forward, the train being long, and the caboose being noisy not allow the conductor to hear the horn? As the report indicates, he had at least a second chance of preventing the accident when he saw the train was not properly slowing down for the metro area because there is an air-brake valve in the caboose.
I've been reading the stories that a couple of engineers have been posting on Facebook. One thing I have learned is that drinking on the job was remarkably common back in the 1960s. In fact, it was a good thing they had a crew size of 5 people because some guys were known to go to sleep on the job because they drank too much. I know that Major League Baseball learned that just writing the rule "don't use drugs" doesn't do the job. They had to also do random testing for drug usage. The railroads don't care about Performance Enhancing Drugs. But they must care about drugs that impair performance. I don't know what the current practice is concerning random testing for alcohol, cocaine, opiates, etc.
The hours-of-service rules have changed. Now a crew can work only 12 hours and must be given 8 hours off before they can work again. I could never have been an engineer because I have enough insomnia issues that I could not get enough rest in 8 hours.
The replacement of the caboose by an End-of-Train Device (ETD) removes the risk of a crew at the end of the train being hit by a following train.
Researching the history of the "dead-man switch" and how to defeat them goes on the todo list.
This is the type of accident that PTC should prevent.
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
To summarize the report, there were at least two problems. One was that the air hose was getting pinched or kinked when the slack was bunched. Two, the ETD did not respond to the emergency stop control. I hope I catch the final report to learn the root causes of these problems. I wonder if the 28cfm train line leakage is typical or excessive.
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
Rope Bairrington shared four photos,
Michael Smith MP 126 on the Glidden sub near Flatonia, Texas.
A closeup of the second photo indicates that the hillside may be what kept the locomotives from rolling on over.
Some comments indicate the truck was an oilfield frac pump. A Google result indicates that they can cost over a million dollars. It looks like its frame is rather long and low. Maybe the crossing is on a "hill" and the trailer got hung up on the tracks.
There were quite a few comments on the share as to why the ties now look bad. Some say they look bad because heavy locomotive wheels rolled over them. Others say they look like they were bad before the collision, and they could be the reason the locomotives came off the tracks. Looking at the photos, the trailer was drug a long distance and torn apart in the process. Perhaps a big piece fell under the front of the lead locomotive and that forced the wheels off the track.
Fortunately, the car activated crossing signals. I've read that some systems need about six cars to have enough axles to activate the signals. The article says "Norfolk Southern employees were able to slow the car and board it at a slow speed, when they used a hand brake to stop it." I wonder how they slowed it. If they had coupled to it with a locomotive, then they could have just stopped it with the locomotive. The car traveled about 11 miles.
Not only should PTC be able to detect broken rail, some old signalling systems could turn signals red if a rail broke.
The opposite of a rail kink in the summertime is a rail pull (break) in the winter time. The cold causes the rail to contract until the tensile strength of the rail is exceeded. The weather has turned cold and I'm seeing reports of more than one derailment due to a "track problem."
Six grain cars tipped over in Owosso, MI, blocking the first North Pole Express run of the season that was running behind it. They had to find a lot of school buses to haul the passengers back to the station. A crossing was closed for a couple of days. [25news]
A big one this November was CSX in Byromville, GA. I noticed in one of the photos that the bridge still has ACL panted on it. So this was a former Atlantic Coast Line route. If you are a CEO installed by a hedge fund manager, would you choose to use your revenue to buy back shares or to do track maintenance?
There were no injuries, but several [30] cars were dumped off or near an overpass. The number of cars derailed impacts the cleanup time, but not the impact on the people in the town other than traffic hassles. However, some [4] of those cars were carrying odorless propane. This caused most of the town to be evacuated and a long detour around the potential hazard. Who pays the motel and restaurant bills for the people that are forced to leave their homes? (A shared post indicated the evacuation was lifted the same day it was called, 11/18/2018. A comment indicated that none of the tank cars leaked propane.) A report [13WMAZ (source)] said it derailed near Main Street. But looking at satellite images, it derailed on the main road through town, not Main Street. It was fortunate that no one driving on the highway got hurt, or worse. The derailment was mid-train, so the train crew was safe.
Sandy Swb posted eight photos of the derailment in Byromville, GA.
Alex Marks bridge collapsed
When I looked at this photo, I thought the propane tanks were near the end of the cut that left the tracks. That means they would have been slowed down because of emergency braking caused by the broken airline and the shock absorbing action of the boxcars and hoppers in front of them. So they "gently" rolled off to the left side of the photo. I'm seeing conflicting reports concerning the damage to the bridge. They range from its OK to it needs to be replaced.
Fortunately, I came across this video from a Dooly County Sheriff squad car dashcam. It looks like the propane tanks were at the beginning of the cut! So they not only left the track at full speed, those other cars probably shoved into them.
The Chicago Tribune had a report in their section of little reports from around the world. I still get the paper delivered because this little newsprint blurb had more information than any news report I found on the web. I've transcribed the report.
Not all broken rails cause accidents. A story posted by William O'Neal Stringer in a EJ&E group:
The Janney (knuckle) coupler and air brakes are examples of equipment the railroads were required to convert to in the 19th century because they improved safety. Using roller bearings instead of friction bearings is an example of a rule that went into affect during the 20th Century to improve safety. (Roller bearings also reduced a lot of labor requirements. And, unlike coupler and air brake changes, not all cars had to change at the same time to be compatible. So the railroads converted most of their cars without a rule. But it is now a rule, and now museums have trouble getting cars they purchased transported to their museum because they are old and have friction bearings.) The replacement of hand signals with radios is a 1970s improvement.
Since at least 2014, the railroads have been replacing their relay-and-copper-wire-based signalling with computer-and-fiber-optics-based signalling to implement Positive Train Control (PTC). Unfortunately, newer is not always better. The crossing gates over Main Street in Downers Grove have had many false closings after the new equipment was cut over. (During the 40 years I lived in town with the old signalling equipment, I never saw a false closing.) They turned on PTC for BNSF commuter trains this year. To do that, they had to change the schedules because it takes longer to change the direction of the locomotive after arrives at the end of the line. The increased turnaround is cause by needing to reboot the PTC equipment. The new schedule caused a lot of overcrowding of some trains. Recently, I saw a headline in the Chicago Tribune about the trains having a 45-min delay because of signalling problems. And today [11-3-2018], WGN had a report blaming PTC for ongoing train delays and further delays of much needed engine and car replacements. (source)
Sometimes improved safety is not an invention but another safety rule. For example, outlawing the poling of cars and outlawing a flying switch. But these two rules no longer have much impact on a crew's productivity because carload rail service to industrial plants has practically disappeared compared to what it was a century ago.
Another safety rule that some railroads have written is that the trains must be completely stopped before someone can get on or off of it. That rule is currently controversial. When doing switching work it was quite common to get off and on a train that was moving at a walking speed. In fact, I've seen a 1940s NYC safety training video about the correct way to get on a slowly moving train. This rule is currently controversial because it does reduce the productivity of a crew.
1969: IC Rear-End Collision, 3 Fatalities
Dave Ladislas Sr. posted the question: "Anybody recall the bad IC train accident over the Cal-Sag,on the bridge just N. of Riverdale in like late 1969 involving a coal train and an auto-rack train? I think the crew on the coal train was killed,a few autos ended up in the river,and still there,supposedly."
Jon Roma I was but a child when it took place on September 26, 1969, but I have read the accident report. The crew of a northbound train, Extra 5055 North, fell asleep due to the effects of fatigue and alcohol, passed stop signals, and rear-ended a standing train, Extra 1214 North.
The rear brakeman of Extra 1214 North, and the engineer and head brakeman of Extra 5055 North were killed.
David Daruszka
Daryl Guthrie. The NTSB report places the blame on the crew. https://www.jonroma.net/.../Railroad%20Accident... |
| David Daruszka commented on Dave's posting Jon Roma Notice that the caboose body is completely sheared off the frame, and the engine is pretty much crumpled. The accident report estimates that the collision speed was close to 60 mph. |
 |
| Don Horn commented on Dave's posting Here is a photo from my files. Dennis DeBruler I didn't realize the navigation channel was widened so late in the 20th Century. This photo allows one to see the fixed-trunnion bascule spans. https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../cnic-bridges.... |
I was surprised when I read the conductor's testimony. Obviously, he told what should have happened, not what did happen. The report indicates he should have prevented this accident by not letting the engineer get on the train in the first place because he must have been obviously drunk. I wonder if a conductor in the caboose can hear the horn blowing for crossings. Or does the horn facing forward, the train being long, and the caboose being noisy not allow the conductor to hear the horn? As the report indicates, he had at least a second chance of preventing the accident when he saw the train was not properly slowing down for the metro area because there is an air-brake valve in the caboose.
I've been reading the stories that a couple of engineers have been posting on Facebook. One thing I have learned is that drinking on the job was remarkably common back in the 1960s. In fact, it was a good thing they had a crew size of 5 people because some guys were known to go to sleep on the job because they drank too much. I know that Major League Baseball learned that just writing the rule "don't use drugs" doesn't do the job. They had to also do random testing for drug usage. The railroads don't care about Performance Enhancing Drugs. But they must care about drugs that impair performance. I don't know what the current practice is concerning random testing for alcohol, cocaine, opiates, etc.
The hours-of-service rules have changed. Now a crew can work only 12 hours and must be given 8 hours off before they can work again. I could never have been an engineer because I have enough insomnia issues that I could not get enough rest in 8 hours.
The replacement of the caboose by an End-of-Train Device (ETD) removes the risk of a crew at the end of the train being hit by a following train.
Researching the history of the "dead-man switch" and how to defeat them goes on the todo list.
This is the type of accident that PTC should prevent.
Oct 2018: UP Rear-End Collision, 2 Fatalities
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
 |
| RRD19FR001-preliminary-report (source) This poor crew... helpless at best it sounds. |
Nov 2018: BNSF train on UP tracks hits truck and all three engines derail, 0 fatalities
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
Rope Bairrington shared four photos,
Michael Smith MP 126 on the Glidden sub near Flatonia, Texas.
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 3 |
 |
| 4 |
 |
| 2, cropped x2 |
Some comments indicate the truck was an oilfield frac pump. A Google result indicates that they can cost over a million dollars. It looks like its frame is rather long and low. Maybe the crossing is on a "hill" and the trailer got hung up on the tracks.
 |
| Propell |
 |
| Propell |
 |
| Propell |
There were quite a few comments on the share as to why the ties now look bad. Some say they look bad because heavy locomotive wheels rolled over them. Others say they look like they were bad before the collision, and they could be the reason the locomotives came off the tracks. Looking at the photos, the trailer was drug a long distance and torn apart in the process. Perhaps a big piece fell under the front of the lead locomotive and that forced the wheels off the track.
Nov 2018: deliberate derailment of a runaway 286-car iron-ore train
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
 |
| TheWest (source) |
 |
| Seven News from TheWest |
"BHP [an iron-ore mining company in Australia] has attributed last week’s runaway train derailment in the Pilbara to a combination brake system failure and incorrect operating procedure." This train had two braking systems: air and electric. The air provides power to push the brake pads against the wheels. It seems their electric system doesn't control air pressure but uses electricity to provide the power to push the pads. The air system is an emergency backup system. The driver got off to inspect a car. The first mistake is that the driver did not engage the emergency air brake before leaving the locomotive. This was a violation of the relevant operating procedure. Secondly, the electric braking system that initially stopped the train automatically released after an hour while the driver was still outside. [TheWest] This is just a preliminary report. Why would someone program a brake system to autonomously release itself after an hour? If I surmise correctly that the electric system uses electrical power to apply the brakes, then maybe it would overheat after an hour of continuous application. In which case not setting the air brake is an even bigger no-no.
Runaway Paraffin Wax Tank Car
PTC would not have prevented this accident.
Did someone not bother to set a hand brake? A car need not be on a hill to start rolling. The industry has worked very hard to remove friction from rolling bearings. I have read about wind blowing cars uphill on hump yard tracks!
(new window) from mcall from postingFortunately, the car activated crossing signals. I've read that some systems need about six cars to have enough axles to activate the signals. The article says "Norfolk Southern employees were able to slow the car and board it at a slow speed, when they used a hand brake to stop it." I wonder how they slowed it. If they had coupled to it with a locomotive, then they could have just stopped it with the locomotive. The car traveled about 11 miles.
Heat kinks, especially after the ballast has been disturbed by track resurfacing (tamping)
Unless PTC includes some really fancy rail break and kink detection sensors, it would not prevent these types of accidents.
This is from a closed group, I hope everyone can access the "posted" link in the caption. There is a lot of "real world" information in the comments.
In the case of William's story, the track was bent by a coal train passing over it. Someone speculated that the coal cars started rocking back and forth causing lateral forces that moved the track. The more common cause for bent track is "heat kinks" in the summertime. The heat causes the track to expand so much that the ties can't handle the compression forces in the rail. It is ironic that just after resurfacing a track, it is more dangerous in the summertime.
In the case of William's story, the track was bent by a coal train passing over it. Someone speculated that the coal cars started rocking back and forth causing lateral forces that moved the track. The more common cause for bent track is "heat kinks" in the summertime. The heat causes the track to expand so much that the ties can't handle the compression forces in the rail. It is ironic that just after resurfacing a track, it is more dangerous in the summertime.
 |
| William O'Neal Stringer posted |
Rail Pulls
Not only should PTC be able to detect broken rail, some old signalling systems could turn signals red if a rail broke.
The opposite of a rail kink in the summertime is a rail pull (break) in the winter time. The cold causes the rail to contract until the tensile strength of the rail is exceeded. The weather has turned cold and I'm seeing reports of more than one derailment due to a "track problem."
Six grain cars tipped over in Owosso, MI, blocking the first North Pole Express run of the season that was running behind it. They had to find a lot of school buses to haul the passengers back to the station. A crossing was closed for a couple of days. [25news]
A big one this November was CSX in Byromville, GA. I noticed in one of the photos that the bridge still has ACL panted on it. So this was a former Atlantic Coast Line route. If you are a CEO installed by a hedge fund manager, would you choose to use your revenue to buy back shares or to do track maintenance?
There were no injuries, but several [30] cars were dumped off or near an overpass. The number of cars derailed impacts the cleanup time, but not the impact on the people in the town other than traffic hassles. However, some [4] of those cars were carrying odorless propane. This caused most of the town to be evacuated and a long detour around the potential hazard. Who pays the motel and restaurant bills for the people that are forced to leave their homes? (A shared post indicated the evacuation was lifted the same day it was called, 11/18/2018. A comment indicated that none of the tank cars leaked propane.) A report [13WMAZ (source)] said it derailed near Main Street. But looking at satellite images, it derailed on the main road through town, not Main Street. It was fortunate that no one driving on the highway got hurt, or worse. The derailment was mid-train, so the train crew was safe.
Sandy Swb posted eight photos of the derailment in Byromville, GA.
Alex Marks bridge collapsed
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 5, cropped |
 |
| 6, cropped |
 |
| Photo posted by Kimberly Godfrey Keene, cropped |
 |
| Screenshot at beginning |
The Chicago Tribune had a report in their section of little reports from around the world. I still get the paper delivered because this little newsprint blurb had more information than any news report I found on the web. I've transcribed the report.
No injuries reported after rail cars fall from Georgia overpassFOX6 has a video in their article (source). Some additional "information" I got from this article is:
BYROMVILLE, Ga. --- Rail cars tumbled from an overpass onto a Georgia highway on Saturday, causing an evacuation and traffic headaches in a small town but resulting in no injuries.
CSX Railroad said 30 cars derailed. That included some that fell from the overpass onto Highway 90 at Byromville, 55 miles south of Macon.
Resident Stephanie Chapman said she was on a deer stand more than a mile from town when it happened.
"You could hear the rail cars hitting each other --- boom-boom-boom-boom-boom," Chapman said.
It happened around 7 a.m. Saturday in the town with a population of about 500.
CSX said four of the cars held petroleum liquefied gas. No leaks were reported.
"Crews are working to re-rail the cars without damage and remove the derailed railcars with damage from the area as quickly and safely as possible," the CSX statement said.The thing that frustrates me about web "news" is that it isn't much more than the platitudes sent out by the PR department. Now if CSX said we are going to wait until Monday before we start the cleanup because we don't want to pay overtime, that would have been news.
Not all broken rails cause accidents. A story posted by William O'Neal Stringer in a EJ&E group:
One fine day I brought the coal train into Joliet from West Chicago and left it on the run-through track so I could run around it with the engines and take it to Romeoville. Everything was fine as I started out but when I got up near the bridges over the small river and the BNSF my engine physically dropped quite a bit going over a certain spot on the left side. I could also hear a sound like a wheel going over a bad rail joint. I was only going 10 mph and uphill so I made so I made an easy stop before the second 3 axle truck on the engine ran over that spot. I went outside and started looking and there it was, the rail was broken all the way through and there was no cross tie under it. The rail is pretty forgiving but I wasn't willing to take the entire 110 plus 100-ton hoppers over it. Might not derail but it sure could. I called the dispatcher and reported my find and told him I thought we could gently run back over that spot with the engine and shove the train back into the yard. We had a utility man helping us so he protected the move from the rear end. My conductor was out on the ground at that spot and watched closely as we tippy-toed back over it. In years past that kind of responsibility was rewarded by the J with a Chevron and a savings bond for saving them thousands of dollars and tieing up the railroad over Bridge 198 but they had already quit doing that years before to save money I guess. That broken rail was under my engineer's seat when I brought the train in and I didn't feel it then so it must have happened after my engine passed over that spot which is entirely possible. Sometimes things just don't feel right.Just another day on the J.
Rail repair used to use fire along the rail to heat it up so that it would expand and close the gap. Now they have hydraulic grippers than can pull the rail back together.
Train Wrecks and some Safety Rules
Reviewed by Unknown
on
November 12, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
November 12, 2018
Rating:
No comments: