March 27, 2007: Propane train derails

[tw]

How big would a seagoing propane train be? Well current post Panamax container ships carry enough containers for a train 62 miles long. Propane and natural gas ships are much larger.

[seakdivers]

So which end is the front? I would assume that the pileup is the front - but where is the engine car? Is it smooshed under the rest of them?

Weird.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by seakdivers

So which end is the front? I would assume that the pileup is the front - but where is the engine car? Is it smooshed under the rest of them?

Weird.

I see cars still on the track to the right, so I presume that the train was traveling from left to right, with the engine leading. I reckon the engine is somewhere in the wreckage since I doubt this was the trailing end of the train and was rear ended.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Trains have safety couplings so if a car in the middle of the train jumps the track the engineer can cut it loose and book. If the engine is/was on the right then he must have left some, or all, the cars behind.
I'm not sure, but I doubt the engineer can dump cars selectively from the cab.

If the engine was/is on the left, when the cars started jumping the tracks and piling up, it would stop the cars behind them dead, and the engine with or without some cars would get the hell out of there.

[glatt]

I was wondering the same thing. I know if I was an engineer and all that mess happened behind me, I'd uncouple the train and get out of there.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs

I'm not gay!!! Why does everyone that knows I take and give it in the ass think I'm gay?!!!!

I'm sorry, Shel. I personally thought the Barbra Streisand CDs and impeccably clean house were a dead giveaway. But it turns out that you're just a nerdy straight man. A thousand apologies.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs

I'm not gay!!! Why does everyone that knows I take and give it in the ass think I'm gay?!!!!

You may not be gay, but you certainly are festive.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And anyone thinks he's the straight man, I want to see(hear) their comic.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

I was wondering the same thing. I know if I was an engineer and all that mess happened behind me, I'd uncouple the train and get out of there.

When a train derails, a resulting loss of pneumatics results in all brakes applied on every car and fuel cutoff to the engine. In this case, engineer and conductor heard the problem, looked back, and saw sparks flying. Immediately they applied brakes. A car derailed about 5 seconds later. When the train stopped, they jumped and ran. This is what was reported.

Suspicions fall upon a rail that may have shattered. Apparently this line was inspected only last November by that ultrasonic inspection train (I believe operated by Unisys). But that rail section, for reasons not explained, could not be tested by machine; was inspected manually.

This train was shifting from one rail line to another. IOW, if settlement due to spring thaw had undermined one rail bed, then a car may have tilted and derailed during at that transition. However other reports implied this did not happen.

Trains in this region normally operate at 50 MPH. But due to the rail shift, this train was only moving at 30 MPH. Even with brakes fully applied; appreciate how many cars piled into the derailment until remaining cars could stop.

NY State is becoming concerned with CSX since well over 500 problems have occurred over the past seven years. NY's Governor has opened an investigation of CSX.

Essential to CSX is this line; a major connection to New England. Freight trains must go far north, to Albany, to get around or into NYC. A new proposal would build a tunnel from Jersey City, deep under the Hudson River, to surface in Brooklyn so that NYC can become a shipping port again. Instead shipping is from Newark NJ where freight trains can service ships.

[xoxoxoBruce]

26ish cars at 30mph? And a couple, far off the tracks. That's hard to fathom. I wonder how many cars were pushing into that wreck.
Cut off fuel to the engine? Oil to the diesel generator or electric to the drive motors. Cutting electric would be faster, wouldn't it? Or would that just allow them to freewheel?

Stay the hell off the RR crossings, you wouldn't even slow them down while they squash you.

[elSicomoro]

I remember at one point a few years ago, several people got hit by trains in the Philadelphia area...some of them SEPTA commuter trains, but a couple of Amtrak ones too, IIRC. What the fuck?! Didn't your parents ever teach you to stay off RR tracks?