Watch exclusive drone video of crews removing the Norfolk Southern locomotive that crashes and derailed into the Lehigh River in Lower Saucon, Northampton County Pennsylvania
It was almost 2.5 hours. I'm assuming they had to change drone batts at that moment. I was annoyed also that they missed it but it's still a very professionally done video.
It happened in December 1995 on the now CSX, an Conrail line in Effingham, IL., between Indianapolis, IN., and St. Louis, IL. A westbound Conrail extra 6437 train stopped on a signal on a two track main while waiting for the eastbound to go by. The second westbound Conrail extra 5012 operating on a "restricting" signal indication which permitted a maximum speed of 15 mph, collided with the rear of extra 6437 west at an estimated speed of 27 mph. Conrail extra 6437 west was stopped at a stop signal. Neither crew gave warning to the approaching Conrail extra 6259 east that a collision had occurred. The eastbound train exited a right-hand curve and collided with the derailed cars of extra 5012 west resulting in a derailment and fire. The engineer and the conductor of extra 5012 west were fatally injured in the collision and fire. The conductor of the extra 6259 east was fatally injured and the engineer sustained minor injuries. Transcripts of radio conversations that occurred shortly before the accident indicated that the crewmen of extra 5012 west were awake prior to the collision. However they may have thought that extra 6737 west was stopped further to the west than it actually was.
look up the Great East Thompson Railway Wreck of 1891. VERY similar to this wreck. two freight trains collided head on. A third Express train on an adjacent track hit debris from the first wreck, and a -fourth- Express train on the adjacent track rear ended the third. Hundreds of people were injured. TWO died. The house my father grew up in was struck b nd subsequently repaired with pieces of a boxcar from the wreck.
This is an impressive display of skills and teamwork as this locomotive is maneuvered back onto the ROW. Superb filming by the drone operators to share this operation with all of us desk jockeys. Thanks!
The "TEAM" from Cranemasters never cease to amaze...These men and women are known for the professionalism and capabilities!!! Another amazing job done without incident, under extenuating circumstances, at a moments notice...Well Done Team!!! Well Done!!!
Just figure it this way if one breaks its over pretty quickly and when they snap it is usually either a clean amputation or death. But the newer cable retrieval systems have dead fall design to them. I don't rightly understand how it works. My brother was a Trackman for Conrail he now woks for a smaller RR in Tennessee. Over the years he told me uprighting a fallen engine is some feat.. I know years ago they used to hook other weighted cables to the retrieval cable lines. The Navy used to do that on moor lines as well. That I know I am Navy & Marines. In some instances like this one that probably is not possible.
As a retired paramedic who has seen his fare share of life ending trauma, I can't believe how many people were standing, in what would be called the killing zone, so close to where if the cable were to snap that they would be dead before the top half of there body hit the ground. OSHA would have a field day with this!
bc it's Norfolk Southern That's Why they don't give a F**k about safety fr fr that's no lie they Legit were heard saying at meetings saying they are More Worried about the dollar bill instead
not just that, but pulling on the bogie wich they almost ripped off completly. its a shitshow from a safety and technical perspective. way too much yee-hawing going on.
Excellent videography , ' must have required multiple battery changes for your quadcopter! Kudos to the heavy equipment guys also. Was that RJ Corman & Co. doing the heavy lifting ??? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
That was a very complicated scene. Recovery was a very good job well done. What a way for that loco to end up, such a shame. Wish everyone well affected by this. ❤
@@SupremeRuleroftheWorld I don't know who Osha is. Many people thought it was a good job & I did too just from what I saw, though I'm not in the industry just a railfan. 🥰
The average person has NO clue as to how heavy these locomotives are or the energy released when they derail. This crew was fantastic at removing those units from the river. Wrecks are a special breed of people.
Absolutely incredible! The teamwork and coordination and the massive equipment involved is amazing. Those guys scrambling down the hill, they are real risk takers, real men! The video really needs to be played at a faster speed to appreciate the coordinated movements of that heavy equipment.
I'm really surprised Norfolk and Southern hasn't been sued yet for all these train derailments. That's quite a trainwreck I hope and pray no one was seriously hurt. Good job men for cleaning this mess up.
They were sued, and I’m sure it’s still on going with more suits to come. Anyway, I work there and was able to hear about what happened. No one was seriously injured thankfully. What happened was the dispatcher wanted to put a train into a siding, right behind another train in the same siding to make room for a passing train on the main. There’s nothing wrong with putting multiple trains on one siding. So long as you got the room to fit it’s fine. Dispatcher even told them they would be behind another train in the siding. So the crew knew about a train ahead of what the dispatcher didn’t tell them, was that there was already ANOTHER train in that siding. There were already 2 trains, and the dispatcher wanted to put a third in there. So the crew had way less room than they thought they had. But they also came around the bend into the siding too fast. They should have been able to stop within half the distance of sight. Clearly they were going too fast to be able to do that, because they hit the rear of the second train, derailed their engines and both trains cars, some of which spilling onto the main. The train that was supposed to hold the main then came by and smashed into everything that fall onto the main. The scariest thing for me to see is that river. If I were in that locomotive, I’d be pooing my pants thinking we’re about to be trapped under there. The nose the cab was almost under water so they couldn’t get out that way, and if you saw the photos of what happened right after, it looks the like engine is leaning on its right, which is where the engineers door side is. So I wouldn’t want to go out that way either in case the engine tips while your on that walk way. There’s no safe way out other than to climb out the window and risk breaking an ankle.
Great work by the wreck salvage crew, but yes those guys were too close to those tension cables, ask any carrier flight crew member that has seen arresting cables snap on a landing, not pretty. Good work guys.
This is precisely why we can’t allow one person crews and always need at least two alert and on-the-ball crew members in the cab having a social hou…erm, I mean, vigilantly monitoring the track ahead and maintaining each other’s situational awareness.
It looks like the workers are close to the wreck while rigging, then back off for the pull. You need to be further away than the length of the cable in use. A reason to keep the machines close to the engine, to minimize cable length exposed.
Great video but some of the guys that were near the machine if say a little to close ik it's hard to see lucky nothing went wrong great work for these guys they did a great job
Yes, amazing work! Wow. The good folks on "Highway Thru Hell" (TV drama series) could use one of those super cool telescoping track cranes! They could pick up anything! They got all the RR cars out of the way in a hurry. I thought it would take weeks and the customers of the freight would not get their stuff for a month!
10 pieces of lift equipment and all the support vehicles , cool. In the old days they would bring out the 250 ton Railroad wrecker/crane and pull it out. But like they are saying great footage. Wow!
Great work and getting it done. I do have a few concerns, questions. Why did they not have the cranes back farther especially after they got it out of the river. It was like they moved it 3 feet and then all the machines had to move back again. Would the cables break it they were out farther? Also hooking on to the wheel trucks to pull it up was not the best place, since from what I know the trucks just set under frame with no attachment other then the weight of it all and the power cables to the motors in the trucks is the only physical connection.
Not sure as to why they hooked onto the wheel trucks...I had the same question... My guess is they were so close to the cab in order to have a safe balance for the cranes. The farther away a load gets, the higher the risk of a crane tipping over.
Does something like this get repaired and put back in use or does the whole thing get scrapped? And if it gets repaired, or even scrapped, how do they move it there? Isn’t it too heavy to put on a train and move it?
I've seen a few dead engines in the middle of a freight train being taken somewhere for either service or scrapping. One train had 3 non-running engines in the line of cars just free wheeling along with the rest.
That seemed to move fairly easily, those are impressive crane conversions on some big excavators there. So many "safety supervisors" standing right behind the machinery that needs to move in their direction, but I guess at least they weren't stood where a snapped cable could whip right through them.