AFTERMATH of a derailment step-by-step process of clean-up to reopening the line. derailment happened on 2022-05-15 in Herbst, Indiana with the first grain train returning on 2022-05-21.
There's one thing you guys NEVER need to do and that's go to the gym!! What hard work -- and thanks for the video to those of us who have always wondered how the clean up gets done!
Hope that your ankle is better by now. This video is an excellent one for showing to railroad maintenance guys and railroad management as it illustrates precisely why it doesn't pay trying to save costs by cutting the maintenance budget! It probably cost more than a whole years budget just to get the line cleared and back into traffic, and I notice that one grain car was still left on site on its roof at the side of the embankment. I assume that it might be recovered later or cut up where it sits. The repair gang certainly got on with the job. The breakdown gangs really earn their wages as its dangerous and dirty work even in good weather. No fun at all when it's cold, wet and dark, which it usually is on an emergency call out. Good work by you and your wife in getting a film of the recovery work in progress.
You understand that is a myth, right? Class 1 railroads spend 1 to 4 billion dollars each just in annual maintenance, not including extra projects. Also if you think one derailment is the cost of a years maintenance, you're really out of touch.
One of the last things the operating crew wants to do is to call dispatch to report that the train is on the grounds. That means the start of an involuntary, unpaid vacation even though they had nothing to do with the derailment.
Again, not true. You're not just pulled out of service because you had a derailment. That's not at all how it works. The stuff foamers come up with us ridiculous.
Not necessarily. Depends on the work rules, the union, and the circumstances. If I know the crews are good and the circumstances point to something beyond a rule violation or obvious train handling I'm not going to purposefully lose a good crew.
Lucky that this train was moving slowly. All the cars would have been off the tracks! No saving those cars. Not a lot of room to move in the ROW. Hope you feel better soon. Thank to your wife to continue the video work. 👏👏👏Too bad that it rained & not get to see the car clean up! Nice work on your and retail crew's part 👍👍👍
Cool video. That track looked terrible. What a mess that was.I know from working in a rail mill that rail is not cheap. I think if i am right one 84 Ft. 136 - 10 Re was around 800.00 a rail. That was 10 years ago. So most of the new good rail goes to busy main lines first. 141 section rail is more expensive yet. And head harden rail is more expensive.
Yea, I broke a leg years ago. Never had a cast.. had a rod thru the marrow to stabilize it, but still couldn't put any weight on it. I could predict bad weather. I guess I was feeling the changes in barometric pressure, it would make my leg ache something fierce!
I was involved in a grade crossing accident afew years ago- truck& trailer vs our train. Truck was demolished, train( most of it) & loco off the track. I saw what the forces can do to the rail but oh my! the track/rail in the derailment aftermath depicted....wow!!
A fantastic video presentation. Superb job and an atta boy to your wife for completing the process by pinch hitting for you. You both did a splendid job. Thank you.
And they were doing less than 10mph. I was told from a railroad worker that the track had been rippling and when it it got to The trestle is when the derailment happened.
Great video. It shows all of the hard work that is involved in getting the iron monsters back on track. It also shows how everything is planned and carefully done. Good luck with the ankle.
Good video, thanks for the update. Trust the ankle is better by now. A shame that it takes a mess like that to fix the roadbed. Cost twice as much when it's done after the problem happens.
Yes they have been working on putting new ties and renewing the roadbed for the past two months. The crew they have can has been trying to play catch up from when the other railroad had the tracks.
Good video! With all that grain on the ground, they should have a good crop of wheat this years. The mow gangs are without doubt, miracle workers. My hat is off to them!
Rosebud coal mine in Armstrong County PA re-laid on a rail trail with steel ties and new rails milled in 2010. Mine shut down, county bought the line to revert back to trail. Contact said county for barely used rail n ties. Tourist train is located in Schenley PA, near Leechburg. There sits an Alco switcher, 1 box, 1 P&LE bay window, the open air flat, 2 more cabooses, (straight sides, no cupola).
Didn't see any branding on the digger like Cormans, if they were rented that would be expensive. That vegetation has been allowed too close to the railroad corridor. Curious the track broke like it sheared, and the adjoining field had recently been plowed. I wondered about those logs whether they played any part in the sorry affair. Thanks for the video 📹 😮
It's Hulcher equipment and crew. Their trademark is a white oval with red lettering, visible on one of the dozers at 25:53. Their trucks can be white or red. Interesting note--the side-boom dozers (called pipelayers in the oil industry) are likely older than some of the crews operating them, dating from the 1960's-1980's. Amazing what an experienced crew with a couple of side-boom Cats and an excavator can do!
Generally you move trains over the line at reduced speed until a larger effort involving track gangs can be scheduled. Of course that won't be true on a mainline.
Not surprising. What is surprising is that it doesn’t happen more often. So much of the trackage is in terrible shape , worn rail and rotten ties. Some roads don’t care at all. 10:09
Watch RRF video of a few content creators and noticed they're showing a lot more track defects, more than usual seems like. Seen track wear, cracks, wear angling inward, break-offs on the surface rails with some as long as 3 feet, and I'm hoping the content creators are reporting the damages they record. You would think railroad maintenance chiefs would be surfing RRF's contents to be on top of some of these defects.
So, the reason the wheels aren't attached to the trucks and the trucks aren't attached to the cars is for the purpose of making rerailing easier? You just build up the car from the rails? Fascinating.
I worked for a rail car company in the 1980s. We repaired a lot of wrecks which arrived in our yard “loaded” on flat cars. We did lots of covered hoppers and coal gondolas. The tank cars were sent to a plant in Texas, if I remember correctly.
That’s third world country bad! Wow. The tracks I mean. I knew a guy who fixed derailments and it’s tougher than bull riding! They often have to cut a road through the forest to GET there! They have bunker trailers with showers and beds, a chow trailer. It’s crazy hard work, sometimes a temporary rail is laid out to route trains around the wreck!
Sortof jumped from the start of moving bits of the wreck away to having the new track in place and the crew pouring new ballast. Missed a couple of steps, like most of the work.
Simple. In North America (US, CA and MX) our railroads are privately owned and move incredible tonnage. Where in Europe most freight rail traffic now moves on the highway, in North America long haul heavy tonnage trains are the norm. They have to make a profit for the owners and are not taxpayer funded like poor Europeans. We tend to keep branch lines like this one in service for smaller communities rather than the European way of pulling up the line. Our main line operations (US, CA and MX) do not suffer from a lack of maintenance. Lower speed branch operations which feed the mainlines will indeed not be maintained to full standards.
ChainsawN&W1218, really enjoyed seeing the cleanup and the derailment, I've filmed 2 one years ago both NS the big one,1st one was in Wytheville VA on the Bristol line aka Crescent Corridor, got there in enough time to film alot the axles and auto rack cars had derailed loaded with vehicles, and got see them using a railroad spike driver macine,machine, filmed the first train coming through 🛤.