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@@jonaubuchon1040 it's the box on the frame that the coupler mounts into there's two large springs on the outside of it to absorb the shock of the coupling and when the train starts . Wasn't sure what it was called but I was close
_More than likely the brakes on the truck never released and they put a lot of stress on the kingpin/Kingflange that sits on the bolster of the truck which then came apart_
Wow, that is interesting how the wheels came off the auto rack car! At least it didn't tip over. Awesome video! I bet the truck enthusiasts would love this video with that truck stuck on the pile of rocks. Train Derailment & Truck Stuck On Pile Of Rock At Crossing! Lol
Brian, just to give you an opinion/perspective of this event….. I’m pretty positive the emergency application happened towards the rear of the train which often creates excessive draft forces ( stretch ) thus resulting in a draft gear coupler separation which happened at the final end of the movement, when a drawbar assembly detaches at higher speeds the results are catastrophic…..due to the length that mike said this train was convinces me the results were from a heavy rear setup and as far as a dpu I just cant comment because they came 4 years after I retired…..those were some happy dogs🐕🐕🐕👍….ms5203~~~
@@mshum538 You can see in the video the tanker car ahead of the auto rack, the drawbar broke clear off near the frame of the tanker car. I think this is where it all started.
The reason why NS doesn't use DPU's on that train is because of the bean counters and the actual, literal purpose of a bean counter is to step over a dollar to pick up a dime.
The purpose of the 'bean counter' is to make investors happy with their investments. Given railroad stock prices they seem to be doing their job. Bean counters at the end of the day are not going to allocate power to specific trains.
This reminds me of a story my grandfather told me, goes back to the days of the C&NW in my area. Happened between Lake Benton, MN and Tracy, MN on what is now the D&ME/CP/RCP&E system. Tracks in the area were so bad back on the day, a 10 mph limit was imposed on the mainline. A minor derailment happened with a 40' tank car. The train and crew eventually got to Tracy and noticed something missing from one the cars, turns out the lead truck on the tank car broke off and got kicked out from under the train somewhere along the route, but never derailed fully. Tensions on the draw bar literally kept the tank car from hitting the ground and kept the train together and rolling fine. I'm kind of curious what the paper work on that situation looked like..
I'm guessing that tank car had shelf couplers. Shelf couplers prevent the couplers from sliding apart vertically so that in case of an accident the coupler of the adjacent car doesn't lift up and over and puncture the tank car. The shelf coupler would have prevented the tank car from slipping down out of the adjacent coupler on to the tracks.
I used to work at an intermodal yard for NS. One day the superintendent called the whole shift into his office and was going to fire everyone, because a trailer fell of the train. Until my team leader pointed out that the fifth wheel was still attached to the trailer. Later, a car inspector told us that the fifth wheel assembly was rusted away where it attached to the car. It was a NS flat car. It was the NS way to jump to conclusions. Once before, they accused us of throwing a derail on just before a train came down the track, derailing the lead locomotive. Until we showed them, the air hose had been dragging in the snow and actually threw the handle for the derail.
Reminds me of an accident in Denmark In 2019. A semi trailer was blown off a train in and collided with an oncoming commuter train. 8 people died and many more were injured, they found out it was something wrong with the fifth wheel as well.
@@bobposey6961 Well until this string of comments, because trains look cool, and are a key piece of infrastructure (better a railroad in the back yard than a road or highway in the back yard, you know?). Now, with the risk of train cars dumping their cargo or falling apart as they go by? Maybe keep them a safe distance from the house, at least.
It looks like the tank car drawbar suffered metal fatigue causing the the drawbar to fall into the path of the trailing Autorack car's bogie/truck. The Autorack hit the tank car's drawbar with such force that it broke the autorack's bogie/truck support pin to break which sent the autorack's bogie sliding underneath the autorack.
I am retired from the UP after 36 years, I never saw anything like that before. Most of the time when a truck set comes loose, the train goes on the ground. It appeared to me like that one car was the only one without all of its wheels still sitting on the rail.
Reminds me of the farmer who was plowing his field. As he started a row, the horse dropped dead. The farmer said, “Hmm, she ain’t never done that before.”
When clearing a derailment, they always leave the last good car coupled to the derailed car. The rescue locomotive can couple in to the good car without hitting the derailed car. This also helps keep the rescue locomotive from getting in trouble with possible bad track.
The train going into emergency could have caused structural failure at the tank car or the structural failure could have caused the train to go to emergency. Whatever it was it looks like the draft gear from the tank car could have got hung up under the car carrier enough to lift it off of the truck. Back when they had cabooses I saw the engineer of an empty coal train put it in emergency because of someone laying on the tracks. When the slack ran in the caboose and about four other cars in front of it lifted off of their trucks and came back down off center. They were all leaning from side to side but they stayed upright. They had to get a crane to pick the cars up and put the trucks back under the bolsters.
If I had to venture a guess, I suspect the end frame on the tank car suffered metal fatigue (stress crack + cold weather + slack shifting + ???) causing the remainder of the train to pull the tank car end platform off. The tank car has a shelf coupler that stayed connected to the autorack for a bit before falling off and getting caught under the leading truck on the autorack. The drag of the coupler tilted the lead truck on the autorack, pulled it off the bolster, and dragged it back under the autorack frame. Eventually, the coupler came loose and it seems it might have come to a rest in front of the lead axle on the rear truck of the autorack. The twisted walkway could be from the trailing platform of the tank car with the fractured frame. Just a guess.
This is the scenario I was thinking. The frame on the tank car may have been already stressed before the trip, and just happened to fail on this trip. Its possible the leading edge of the tank car coupler may have fallen down and got caught on the rr ties which pushed up the leading truck on the autorack which caused it to detach form the auotrack. It would have been interesting to see the damage on the tracks where they were doing the repair, that may enlighten our aanlysis.
Did anyone notice that the train was actually parted a few cars from the end? (1:30 in the video). My guess would be that it broke there, throwing everything into emergency. As the air pressure bled off from back to front, it applied the brakes on the back portion of the train first. At some point, it over-stressed the drawbar on the tanker in front of the auto rack. I could then imagine the broken bit of drawbar dropping down and jamming in the tracks, pole vaulting the auto rack just enough to jump the bolster. And with the brakes hard on on the auto rack, the loose truck would stop almost instantly, so that when the car came back down it missed the pin.
47 years on SP/UP. Had this exact issue (almost) on a tank car. At 50-mph, lost a center pin and lead set of trucks rolled all the way to rear of tank stopping ahead of rear trucks. Nothing derailed. Reported by passing crew. I told engineer to stop her hard stretched! Had any slack run in car would have derailed. Tension was all that stopped the derailment...
@@railscenes4959 Indeed, they keep running longer trains and not enough engines on them to handle them properly, thus more broken knuckles and other complications as a result.
That's crazy! And you're correct, Norfolk Southern should use more DPUs, I've never seen a locomotive on NS except for at the ends of the trains, and some of the trains that run through New Albany and Georgetown, Indiana are pretty long. Which that kind of surprises me considering that Indiana has a state law that trains can't be blocking a railroad crossing for more than ten minutes. I see DPUs on the CSX trains that run by Jeffersonville all of the time.
The coupler and frame broke off the tanker and most likely got jammed under the truck, causing the derailment. The train must have been moving slowly when it happened.
Ok as a carman for 23 years, let me correct all the foamers who have no idea what they're talking about. This is caused by slack action. Engineer slacked the train, finding the weakest point it broke the stub sill on the tank car. As you can clearly see it's a100% new break. There's zero indication of any significant prior cracking. The multilevel is the result of the severe slack action, lifting the car out of the bowl as the train was moving, de-trucking the car. Multi levels are light cars to begin with, especially empty. 100% this was due to poor train handling, possibly due to terrain or train size. Period. All the evidence is right there. Also De-trucking a freight car is NOT uncommon, you just dont see them in the public often as a lot of times they are in yard type derailments. I've cleaned up many of them over the years.
I had to go way down in this thread to find your post reflecting what happened here. The railfan speculation was erroneous and rampantly wrong. Hope people pay attention to what you wrote.
I’m pretty sure the metal fatigue happened first; then the coupler/draft-gear box fell off and wedged under the truck of the auto-rack. The lead truck stopped, and momentum carried the rest of the auto-rack forward until the wheel jammed up against the rear truck, or the wrecked lead truck cocked sideways and brought the auto-rack to a stop. Had something caused the auto-rack to derail first, it would have caused other cars to derail as well, then either the coupler/draft-gear box would have failed, or the lifting of the front (?) of the auto-rack would have lifted the couplers apart, and the tank car would have an intact coupler/draft-gear box. But that’s just my theory. 🙂
I can tell you from experience a DPU wouldn't make a difference in this train. Comes down to car inspection and wear and tear. That tank car had a flaw before hand. The auto rack is just a casualty
No, it's not. It was clearly a 100% fresh break caused by severe slack action, same slack action that lifted the multilevel out of the bowl, causing the multi to be de-trucked.
Could be because the tank car has a " Shelf Coupler so it can take a hard bounce. That Auto- Rack might have been empty and it got lifted and the wheel truck kept rolling the direction and ended up like it did. And a DPU wouldn't make a difference.
Interesting pull-apart. Never imagined failures like that, especially the draft gear. You say they have a lot of pull-aparts on this line? I'd be looking at who is the engineer, see if it's the same guy. If that doesn't produce results, I'd be looking at the terrain, and definitely use DPUs. Even if you used a single unit in the front, and a single in the middle, it would relieve a lot of stresses.
Saw a video awhile back, think it was from Florida IIRC, where a train went into emergency because of a failed coupler box... in this case it was an OLD beat up gondola, and the WHOLE FRIGGIN COUPLER BOX broke free from the underside of the car... it was still hanging off the front of the car behind it that it was coupled to! About 4-5 feet of steel box framework just sticking out of the front of the car behind it when it rolled to a stop. The rear bolster and truck was unaffected and remained under the car, and kept rolling right along until it stopped, as did the car hitched behind it which rolled to a stop with the rear half of the train! This one, looks to me, like the tanker coupler box sheared in half through the couple pin holes, the rear half of the coupler box took the entire catwalk and hand brake and air chamber off the rear of the car (there's pics of the car online if you Google the reporting number (UTLX number on the side of the car). In this case, the coupler then dropped free of the coupler on the front of the autorack behind it, and fell between the rails. The autorack then ran over the coupler, and since autoracks use smaller diameter wheelsets, the bolster is closer to the ties and it probably "jumped" the coupler when it hit it and rolled over, it, lifting the front truck of the autorack enough to allow the rear wheel set to roll free from it's side frame bearing hangars, and the bolster to turn enough to jump off the king pin and pivot pad on the bottom of the autorack's front frame, which let the bolster roll back and free of the car's frame pivot point, then the car simply slid up over the bolster and front axle, which slowly rolled back under the car as it rolled to a stop... the rear wheelset of the front truck probably derailed from the impact that lifted the side frames off it, or else the car rolled along and it lifted the car up by rolling under the frame lifting the car up enough so the bolster came free from the car pivot point on the frame, and then it dropped off the rails and rolled along til it was against the rear truck of the auto rack which just pushed and rolled it along with the rear truck til the car stopped. What a mess! Later! OL J R :)
Nice video, I’m utterly speechless. Never seen this happen ever, why NS continues to run big trains without DPUs is a mystery to me. Big trains are no fun when something bad happens like this. Your where the action is dude.
Loads make a difference. Looks like lots of hoppers. How much tonnage was in that line up. It's possible a DPU may have averted this disaster but that sheared end on the tanker looks like metal fatigue
Well actually, I have seen this before. My avatar photo is the example. When my train entered a curve, the inside axle of the front truck managed to jump over a rail joint on the outside rail of the curve. This car was a 72-ft empty reefer box and was 20 cars back from the power in a 78 car train. None of the crew knew there had been a derailment until the engineer spotted a car leaning out too far. By that time, the front wheelset was now back with the rear wheelset and looked very much like your car there, all sprung apart and in pieces. It was determined that the track was the cause, with a bad rail joint on the outside rail of the curve. We were lucky to only have one wheel jump off instead of all of them.
I will be interested to see whether the drawbar broke on the tanker car first, or whether the derailment of the leading truck on the auto rack caused such a load on the tank car coupler that it snapped off. Keep us informed about this incident! This is a fascinating find!
Good question - I would wager the tank car failed first (looks like a pretty clean fracture). Then the knuckles flopped down on the road bed and the front truck of the autorack stumbled over the debris, rolling it under the car, plowing along for awhile. Very good fortune that it did not tip over and make a grand pile. The zig-zag wreckage could have easily shoved out onto the highway. Interesting wreck, happened in a place and at a time that permitted a video - good catch !!
Good video. 2 weeks ago at Santa Fe Junction, Kansas city, watched a freight car come off the track and hit a bridge support. I think the railroads are behind on maintenance.
I have never seen that before. I have seen the floor burn up in subway cars and flat cars in the shape of a U. I think whoever is making up the trains for NS do not care about people or equipment. They must think locomotives have no capacity limits. So they run the trains like when you go down the highway and you see people load their cars like a tractor - trailor truck. I think either too much strain on the pin on the car body or metal fatigue.
When the knuckle broke loose from the tanker the knuckes stayed connected and the tanker end dug into the roadbed lifting the autorack enough to allow the rack's truck to separate from its mount.
My guess is that one of the wheel bearings collapsed causing the wheel to sheer off the axel. The additional stress on the truck caused it to sheer oof the car. The momentum of the train caused the car to continue moving forward with the truck coming to a sudden stop!
It's coming it's a lot of work. I was out there about 12 hours that day just getting the video and it's gonna take at least that long to put together the videos
looked as if the pin sheered that holds the floating truck in place. that would have allowed the truck to slide under the car’s rib as the emergency brakes were applied when the truck was jammed into the ground when it lost the wheel. it was amazing how quickly it stopped considering the length of the train, and the total tonnage.
Really interesting video and dilemma for NS. I would be willing to bet that the broken frame on the tanker was the cause. It looks like that car has had repairs done and they may be a contributing factor. My guess is; the tanker frame broke, dropping the knuckle to the track. The front truck of the rack ran over the knuckle and bounced the pin out of the front bolster and momentum rolled the truck to the middle of the car. But that's just a guess. Good catch. P.S. Not guaranteed to be accurate but according to Google Maps measurement, from the location of the lead engine at Chadwick Dr., to the location of the last car just NE of Lincoln Ave in Dunkirk is a distance of 2.15 miles.
Yep not sure what caused the main frame to brake but it is a clean brake no sign of fatigue. I would imagine the broken coupler made it pass first axle on the truck. Got lodged under the center of the truck lifting it off the track then rolling the truck slightly forward and the rear axle came out from the truck. The coupler parts are probably sitting by the rear wheels in front of the rear truck. My guess anyway. Crazy stuff happens when you’re trying to move so much tonnage. A little slack and a hard pull something going to go.
I noticed the train separated further back as well before the crossing, between a pair of tankers leaving it in 3 pieces. I wonder if one of those couplers failed from a broken knuckle when the whole shebang went into emergency braking. Probably. The stresses had to be enormous. I have to wonder what the initial cause actually was, a parted airbrake line from debris on the track or something else? I noticed the damaged handrail on the tank above the snapped drawbar, I wonder what caused that? Was that part of the original accident or part of the aftermath?
@@davebnsfnscale4433 I'd say the knuckle breaking off the tanker. That big chunk of Iron then got one end onto the track and hit the sleepers, pushing the front end of the car hauler up. That got the truck loose. And then the emergency broke the other coupler. Which probably already had a shock from the car hauler suddenly running into the sleepers. Or it might not have been the sleepers but a crossing, who knows? The effect would be the same.
@@davebnsfnscale4433 Nope. If they were doing that, they would have cut the train past the crossing. The chunk of cars blocking the crossing was attached to the auto rack. I think @Robert F was about right. The train parted near the end, and as the emergency brakes were applied from back to front it broke the draw bar out of the tanker. And then that piece jammed in the tracks and pole vaulted the auto rack off of the truck.
Looked to me like the platform at the end of that tanker was broken off. All that steel and the knuckle jammed up the first wheel set on the auto rack and popped it out.. That's why the knuckle was fine on the autorack. Air hoses broke and set the brakes on the remaining cars which could have caused another knuckle break.
When the back half of the coupler box on the tanker parted company, it took the entire rear catwalk, grab irons, and air chamber with it along with the hand brake off the end of the tanker... all that was left was the hand rail holding it together, and that got pulled straight back til it ripped free. The catwalk got ran over and mangled and tossed out the side onto the roadbed ballast, and the coupler, well, it was somewhere back there along the tracks between the rails. Auto racks typically use 24-28 inch wheelsets so they sit lower to the tracks to minimize height, versus 33-36 inch wheelsets on most cars. The smaller wheelsets put the bolsters of the autoracks much closer to the roadbed, so when the coupler dropped down between the rails, the autorack's front bolster "jumped" it which caused the rear axle of the front wheelset to drop out of its side frame bearing hangars, and roll free, and probably caused the bolster to roll enough to drop free of the pivot point and king pin holding it in place at the front of the car... it then rolled back under the car halfway before it all stopped. Rear axle rolling along under the frame could have lifted the front end of the autorack enough to allow the bolster to drop free of the king pin, especially since the side frames and bolster dropped down EVEN MORE after the rear wheelset parted company. The rear wheelset dropped off the rails and rolled back until it hit the rear truck which rolled it along in front of it til it all came to a stop. Lucky it stopped when it did... had it rolled much further the front wheelset would have passed the center of gravity of the auto rack and it would have tipped front end down onto the roadbed, pivoting over the front wheelset axle at the middle, which would have lifted the car completely off the rear wheelset and sliding the coupler up and out of the hopper's coupler behind it. Whole thing would have probably keeled over at that point! Plus then the loaded hopper behind it would have been plowing into the free wheelset from the back of the autorack, and the back end of the derailed autorack itself... would have REALLY been a mess! Later! OL J R :)
Actually that would be an easy fix-take the bad order car and get it off the main line either a siding or set out track and while that's going on either Hulcher RJ Corman or who ever does their derailment specialist is come set the autorack off to the side have crew or new crew shove back to a hook after track inspection take off. I've been involved with much worse in my 18 years at UPRR. Great video Sir.
It looks like the pin sheared off, or ripped out of its socket, and the truck jammed, and "stayed" in place until the wheel came off and got caught ahead of the rear truck. And, though you don't seem to have noticed, The truck of the following car has lifted up off the track, due to the weight of the derailed car, cantilevered over the jammed truck. I think you can see daylight between the wheels of the following car, and the track. it would seem that the knuckle of the tanker got pulled off when the broken car was jerked to a halt. Look Sharp!
So the tanker car broke apart, sending the parts onto the track. Wedging the truck on the transport car. That's messed up. You would think the knuckles would break.
I work for CN and we blow knuckles out all the time. Its piss poor train marshaling. Mixing auto empties and others all over the train and no wonder you have blown out knuckles and drawbars. Our auto and lumber trains are busting them all the time.
The question is what failed first? If the tank car had the failure, I could see all the debris acting like wheel chocks on the trucks of the Auto-rack. With the locomotives still pulling, that could have cause the bolster pin to break, sending the trucks back under the Auto-rack.
I think the pin broke, truck rolled under the car and lifted the end and uncoupled, didn’t see the end of the tank car, maybe that coupler and rail car piece made the auto-rack jump up and then the truck came off the pin
Looks like the tanker got ripped in two and all coupler guts must have gone under the autorack, bouncing the autorack up and over the bowl rim, forcing the trucks under the car. All this happening while the train was already in emergency so not any more damage or derailment occurred. Just an internet shot in the dark.
I've actually seen something like this before when I was little there was a train track going past our house there's a lot noise thunder that was constant my grandpa went outside and said the Train derailed he took me up the tracks and said this is what happens when there's stuff on the tracks he said a piece of debris got wedged Between the Wheels and the tracks and may the car jump and toss the truck and the train just rolled over it and came to a stop near our house if I remember correctly it was a wrench that was left on a train car probably when a car was had some maintenance
The only thing I can think of is the pivot pin on the bolster had to shear off. I don't think it could have been a dip in the rails that caused it to bounce high enough to do that. Unless the truck derailed and still that would need enough enershia to throw the car high enough to leave the bolster. That pin is pretty long and it's really huge in diameter. Much larger that the king pin on a semi trailer but works the same way. I may not be using the correct terms but hope you guys can sort it out. I speak English but often there's some assembly required.🙃
With the break on the tank car the whole coupling would only be supported on the knuckle of the auto-rack. The coupling has dropped and lifted the front end of the auto-rack. Because of the gravity joints between car and wheel truck and wheel truck and wheel axle the rear front axle goes under the car followed by the remaining wheel truck and front axle. Send for the big crane(s) and lift the car off the rails. May also need some new track ties.
I would think the whole knuckle assembly broke off at speed bounced off the ties and wedged itself in the truck lifting the car up and causing the train to be dragged over the truck which wedged itself into the ties. it just one of those freak accidents. It is really a one of a kind event and i am glad you caught it. Ever see a knuckle punch itself through the end of a tank car loaded with propane? I will tell you about that one someday. BOOM. you are absolutly right there is a tremendos stress on those couplers and equipment i am suprised that coupler didn,t go flying DPU would defenitly take aload off such a huge train. Maybe a 40 car pileup would wake them up.
I aint never seen nothing like this, in my life! And i have figured out what happened. The draft gear broke off the tanker, got fouled in the front truck of the autorack, and with Irish luck, nothing went off the track. I counted 8 crossings blocked, what a mess for NS to deal with! And i suspect a lot of slack action over time caused the draft gear on the tanker to fail. Anybody wanna bet money that im right??????? (Just joking on that!)
@@WideWorldofTrains i dont have my hearing aids in, so i couldnt hear what you were saying, sorry 'bout that! I was just playing detective, and ultimately, two guys agreed on something for a change! But thats the craziest derailment ive ever seen! I dont think it will ever be duplicated again. That will end up as one of the best videos on RU-vid!
@@WideWorldofTrains the only way the derailment video could have been better, would have been to catch it as it happened, then that would have been the ultimate video! Seems like NS has had a spat of derailments lately...........
I notice the bolster pin that the truck revolves on has been sheered off... Without it, the truck just drifted back, got wedged and came apart. Of course, something failing in front of this car, like that tanker frame coming apart, 😳!!! could raise all kind of mess. Very strange... never seen a frame shear off like that, and never seen a truck locating pin sheared off... Usually a coupler just pulls straight out of the draft gear box...
I cannot understand how the pin popped out of the truck to have that happen like that. It is really amazing that the cars did not derail with this happing like this....I have never seen anything like it before a first time for sure.
What pin??? Auto racks and all freight cars have a pole and pocket fifth wheel, no pin. If you lift a freight car up, the wheelset will stay on the rails. The flotsam from the tank car ahead probably rolled beneath the car far enough to lift it out of the pocket on the wheelset. The rest is history and mayhem.
Looks like cold weather caused a stress fracture which meant the coupler and the steel box beam holding it got torn off, and then it went under the autorack which rode up over it due to the forces on it and one of the bearing boxes inside the bearing housing on the bogie came loose and the wheels and axle assembly came off and got stuck under the trailing bogie's lead pair of wheels. What a wild ride that would've been for any hobos riding on the hopper wagons behind it!
Around 13:45 a comment is made that you can't move without 80 psi in the brake system. However, most RR in North America now specify 90 psi as standard brake pipe pressure. Having said that, it IS possible to release the air brakes and move the train with far less pressure in the brake pipe. I could go into detail but it would be a very long description.
Bout like a school bus or semi-truck... brakes release at 60 PSI (sometimes a little less) and you can get rolling, but the brakes are REAL soft and sometimes the spring brakes drag a little til the air pressure comes up. Should be at 90-110 PSI or so before you really get moving down the road with any speed... but crawling around in the yard or whatever, so long as the spring brakes release enough to move you're fine... Later! OL J R : )
I have seem NS trains with DPUs here in Atlanta, saw one had 3 engines at the front and a BNSF DPU about halfway down, it was a long train heading into a yard in South Atlanta
Amazing derailment! You don't get it from the thumbnail. I mean that the autorack is upright, so you can think that it's just disconnected. I'm amazed that it didn't fall over to one side or the other! WWOT could you tell if it was empty or loaded? I can't tell if this will make clearing the track off easier or harder. I haven't finished watching the video. I want to know how NS handled this accident. Back to the end of the video!
I didn’t think an axel on a train wheel could snap…I didn’t think it was possible…I was gonna guess a broken center pin or a worn out center plate if that’s even a possible guess 🤷🏻♂️
I saw a NS train, about 250 coal hoppers last Tuesday in South Boston Virginia. There were three units at the head end, three dpu’s in the middle, and three more helpers on the end. All were working hard on a steady uphill run to Lynchburg. There are some heavy grades on this line. Interesting fact, this line was the first Norfolk & Western line to have been dieselized in about 1957.
Great video WWOT! Do you or someone know, with all the blocked streets, what happens if emergency vehicles need to get through? Is NS fined? This seems like a regular occurrence.
Fascinating derailment. Just fyi, Dunkirk, N.Y. was known as the train wreck capitol of the world in the '50s and '60s. Many wrecks, though not on this section but rather i9n the middle of town. Grew up there though left many years ago. I still have photos of the cleanups along Third Street. One time a coal car came sailing of the raised track embankment and crushed the right side of a car while the driver was sitting behind the wheel. Railcars missed smashing into my father's store by mere feet.
After considering several possibilities, I think the tanker knuckle broke first. Then with full braking and the engine still pulling, the fatigued draw bar on the lead car broke. It then fell down at an angle, kind of hinged on its knuckle. However, it was longer than the distance to the ground and raised the end of the car carrier up enough that the truck came loose and rolled back under the car. The draw bar then fell down and caught on the truck and broke the back wheel off. What do others think?
I'm not sure. The tanker with the knuckle pulled off looks more like a shock-load failure than metal fatigue. The failure surface looks too clean for it to be a long term failure. I'd expect more corrosion of the fracture surface if it had been developing over any length of time, but that just begs the question of what could put a shock load through there, large enough to do that sort of damage?
The autorack will be an easy fix. The tanker will require something more. If you want to run long, heavy trains, you need DPUs, that is the whole idea.
Good thing it didn’t actually derail (fell off the track and tipped over) or that would have been a bad situation. To further add to my comment, I agree. NS needs to start using DPUs so this doesn’t keep happening with breakdowns.
That thing's gonna take QUITE A WHILE to repair, unfortunately. The one thing good just now noticed: At least it was near the end of the train. Could you just imagine if that occurred near the front?? Yikes!
@@WideWorldofTrains That one makes all of those "DPU necessary" comments make even MORE sense! Never put 2&2 together about that "2 1/2 mile long" thing. I had originally assumed those blocked streets were MUCH closer than they actually are. :O :O
@@WideWorldofTrains Ahh, cool! That works! That one from today: SHEESH...ASTRONOMICAL! No, it's not "funny" but still...I think that's the first triple-axle rear end I've ever seen. :O :O
It's very difficult to "spot" (as you drive back along the tankers after turning around) - the rear end chassis and assembly parts thereon - at each end - but at 15:34, if one "slows the video-player down to 1/4 speed or less" - it goes slow to enable one to see ENOUGH of the full rear end of the tank cars - which isn't there as all that is visible, is the tank and it's last axle - & nothing of the rear end of that wagon.. Not only the rear-most axle set, but everything between them and the knuckles themselves is completely missing - handbrake wheel, air master cylinders, cross-wagon walking grate (you know, the place that HBO's place their kit when train hopping, absolutely NONE of that "physical / flat" room is there - as it's totally torn of the entire chassis end. I'm talking of the hand rail (part is seen dangling after the rest was torn off the end of the damaged tanker) which is normally connected to the safety handrails that hold the large WHEEL (of the hand-brake) and of the flat working platform (being that bent & that buckled grate on the side of the track) along with the other air-gear etc., which shows that it wasn't merely a knuckle failure at all - but that the entire back-end of the tanker was torn completely off. That is something normally caused by an extremely heavy "hard pull" somewhere further back - possibly at the time the other wagons "parted" behind these - as maybe a long way back, something else has tugged at the entire train (but hasn't parted tail-end wagons). That entire train - from end to end, needs to be sent to the repair workshops for a total inspection - as every single wagon "chassis" has been put into extreme tension - failure at the tanker is obvious, but what isn't so obvious - is anywhere else that the "full-length-tension" was exerted, before the tanker chassis failed. Every single wagon there, has had a "potentially fatal" pull-apart tension exerted on it's chassis - thus all need full inspections - not just a couple of wagons (near where it parted). This failure to inspect all wagon chassis, on any "pulled apart" train - is what leaves stressed knuckles to fail later - leaving passerby people to assume the line has uncoupling faults, where it may well be - a single over heavy "pull apart" has left traces of stress in every wagon on such a "parted" train. Sorry - but having spent some time in the District Civil Engineering office, of the New Zealand railways, back in the 1970's - I not only went out and surveyed damaged track - after derailments, I got to ask the district engineers as to what other measures were taken, to "inspect" any tension stresses (that such a "derailed" / pulled apart train were given) - to ensure that unseen fractures and potential future problems didn't eventuate - from a past "derailment / pull apart" incident? I learnt that the wagons immediately around such a "parting" were take immediately to Hillside Workshops for a complete strip down and inspection, whilst others were sent to the "gully" (a holding area for wagons of trains that may have suffered stresses in the incidents) for a slightly less invasive inspection & repair.
