Holy shit! A Texas sized train crash and derailment

[Roosky01]

I really find it hard to believe the thing was stuck on the tracks for an hour and no notification was made LONG before impact? The final report will be a good read...

Edit- WTF is the bike cop doing besides acting like a cold jug of piss?!!!

 

[dirtslinger2]

Train was going 68 miles an hour when they applied the emergency brakes, the truck was carrying the base of a wind turbine according to this article.

PECOS, Texas — The Union Pacific train involved in Wednesday’s fatal derailment was going about 68 mph before beginning an emergency brake application, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement today (Friday, Dec. 20).

Maximum speed on most of UP’s Toyah Subdivision, including in Pecos, is 70 mph.

Two Union Pacific crew members were killed when the train hit a truck stopped on a grade crossing of U.S. Route 285 (Cedar Street) on Wednesday afternoon [see “Two crew members killed …,” TrainsNews Wire, Dec. 19, 2024]. That truck was carrying an oversized load — a base for a wind turbine, which was thrown by the impact into the nearby Pecos Chamber of Commerce building, a former Texas & Pacific Railway station.

All four head-end locomotives and 25 intermodal well units derailed. The event recorder from the lead unit has been recovered and is being transported to the NTSB material lab in Washington.

Still to be determined, the NTSB said, is how long the truck was on the tracks prior to the collision or if anyone had attempted to contact the railroad through the emergency number posted on a placard at the crossing. The agency is also asking eyewitnesses or anyone with video of the collision to contact the NTSB at [email protected].

Yeah, no, that's a column for refining.

 

[DRYHEAT]

Yeah, no, that's a column for refining.

I’m not arguing, that’s what it looked like. I’m just reporting what the article said.

 

[welldigger00]

Not one person has mentioned a f150 could pull it off the tracks.

Seriuosly though, horrible preventable lose of lives.
So many errors. Pilot. Driver.
1 hour on tracks? Seems impossible. No cops in that hour? No farmer saying wtf did anyone call the number.
No passer by calling the cops?

I can't believe it was 1 hour.

Many ruined lives by human error.

No one has pointed out how fucking California truck drivers throw piss jugs in the hammer lane on chiriacco summit either. This needs to be addressed!

 

[arch stanton]

I take 2 magnets and attach 60 inches of copper wire so I can short tracks in seconds should my truck high center on a RR track these are pre made and i carry 3 sets
Also as has been mentioned there is a phone # and crossing # at every track crossing a road and the truck driver and pilot car driver should both know this should take just seconds to inform the rail road and you should also be telling them you have shorted the tracks first
Also you can send a truck or runner in the direction of the train by looking at the train signals
Before shorting a yellow or green indicates a train is coming towards that lite after shorting it should turn red but a truck could still head in the trains direction to help stop it and you need to be at least a mile away from the problem in order to get it stoped in time
My trucks also run the Newway suspension that has 9 inches of travel that is about 4 inches more than standard truck suspension so that can make a big difference when ground clearance becomes an issue
For those that don’t know a lowbed may only have 4 inches of ground clearance when loaded

 

[FlyByWire]

There's a Sherriff on scene in the video, he's on his motorcycle, not sure what he's doing, cause it doesn't seem like much.

What exactly was he supposed to do?.


We’ve had this happen on the tracks on the 95.. (not as major, but shit breaking down or cars getting hit) BNSF doesn’t like those tracks (or any I assume..) fucked with and they’re Johnny on the spot when we need them.

 

[02HoWaRd26]

You’re not moving that load with anything you can see in that video. That load is massive if it lifted the lead locomotive like it did and how many people carry tow straps that could move that thing lol

From my perspective as I’ve been on a few trains, it wasn’t the concrete tube that caused the unit to lift, it was the fact at that speed hitting the trailer that is literally laying on the rail had nowhere to go. Which when the locomotive hit it it caused it to fully wedge and stick.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

If the trailer is laying on the rails, isn't it the bridge that is shorting out the rails and sending the signal?

 

[4Waters]

If the trailer is laying on the rails, isn't it the bridge that is shorting out the rails and sending the signal?

If it's touching both rails at the same time

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

If it's touching both rails at the same time

If its high centered it has to be straddling the rails right? The rails sticking up just above road grade?

 

[rivrrts429]

From my perspective as I’ve been on a few trains, it wasn’t the concrete tube that caused the unit to lift, it was the fact at that speed hitting the trailer that is literally laying on the rail had nowhere to go. Which when the locomotive hit it it caused it to fully wedge and stick.

You could very well be right but the impact was so impressive that it resulted in the death of the conductor and engineer. That’s a wild impact that had to be like hitting a wall. Seeing the locomotive leap with that amount of tonnage is incredible.

 

[4Waters]

If its high centered it has to be straddling the rails right? The rails sticking up just above road grade?

Theoretically yes but it can stop before it gets far enough to hit both rails

 

[arch stanton]

As for the question of the trailer touching the rails and shorting the track
The answer is maybe but rails are 56 inches apart so if you are touching 2 rails on one track that track is shorted and the signal will change on that track only, but if there are 3 tracks the other 2 are not and the signal for the train will still be green or yellow on those tracks the signal can be over a mile between signals
And if you are touching 2 tracks that are not part of the set i don’t think anything happens
So to be safe short all tracks and make sure you turn yellows and greens to red first but all tracks really need to be shorted because the signal a mile or more back towards the train could be yellow even if you are seeing red
I’m am not sure on the rules for the train engineer when approaching the different color signals but I think yellow means the next signal could be red and there are rules for flashing lights some one else could fill in the details

 

[Roosky01]

Think insurance is going to total it?

...and it's most definitely a distillation column or "still" for a refinery or chemical plant.

 

[boatnam2]

Yea you see too many insulated wind mill stands. Going to take a little bit to make that work again.

 

[Kachina26]

All the talk of the trailer touching both rails and everyone seems to gloss over the likelihood that it's probably coated in some pretty thick paint. I'm sure it's scratched here and there from scraping, but not likely enough to make a nice electrical contact. Another thing to consider and I believe @DarkHorseRacing made mention earlier, the tracks don't stick up above the grade crossing surface. This keeps trucks that drag from catching on the rail and pulling it up. At an asphalt crossing, the asphalt actually pushes up and sticks up even higher than a concrete one. Look at the far track in this picture.

 

[HCP3]

Sad deal but if anything I am happy to have learned that something as simple as a pair of jumper cables could help avoid this situation.

 

[OCMerrill]

Can you just imagine the thoughts that Heavy Haul driver was thinking as he pulled the pin and pulled out of the way?

Then to learn life was lost...

I can ask the question but I have no words to offer.

 

[4Waters]

 

[02HoWaRd26]

You could very well be right but the impact was so impressive that it resulted in the death of the conductor and engineer. That’s a wild impact that had to be like hitting a wall. Seeing the locomotive leap with that amount of tonnage is incredible.

Yea i ride them nearly everyday… that locomotive is either 208 or 210 tons alone.

 

[02HoWaRd26]

Sad deal but if anything I am happy to have learned that something as simple as a pair of jumper cables could help avoid this situation.

Won’t work everywhere but that is exactly what they use to test us on the train. They use them to create a red block to make sure we stop as a test, as well to have us proceed at restricted speed, then place a banner out there we must stop short of.
In this case it very well could have been a lifesaver for that crew as it would’ve dropped the block on them as well caused their PTC system to have placed the train in suppression prior to them even being able to see this.

It’s a sad situation in all ways, i know that we commonly discuss things of this manner in the cab, like do you plug (place in emergency braking) before or after impact, like a tanker it’s always a discussion that wait till after with the hopes you blow through the explosion. But you truly won’t ever know until you’re in the situation as these gentlemen were.

 

[spectra3279]

If it's farming country, I'm sure there's a few tractors that could of pulled that out