Amtrak Crescent Derailed

[George Harris]

According to Gene Poon's posting in TO, the Crescent derailed due to a broken stock rail at a switch that it just passed over. Then it managed to cross a short bridge in the derailed state before coming to a stop.

In a separate report on TO we also learned that the same night 98(24) possibly passed over a rail that was in the process of breaking, just south of Savannah, about 3 miles south of S. Ogeechee on CSX's Nahunta sub, and reported it, causing a restricted speed order to be put in place. The next train to pass was southbound freight train L031, that stopped after seeing the broken rail but before the locomotives had passed over it. There was no derailment, but the railroad was shut down until the track was fixed. Report was from the crew of 91, which was stuck behind the freight together with 97 and 53 for many hours while the track was fixed.

It was very cold for that part of the country. Chances are what happened was a weld, or more likely the heat affected zone near the weld was near its limit and the wheel of the passenger train put it over the limit. If the gap is not large andt he rail ends stay in line, a train can pass over a broken rail of this nature. This si best done if the train is short, as is the case with a passenger train. For a long train the number of impacts over the break can result in a second break so things get out of line dumping the rest of the train on the ground.

Chances are the freight did not stop because he saw the broken rail, but because he was facing a red signal. With a broken rail the electrical continuity is also lost resulting in the signals for that block being unable to clear. If it were permissive (stop and proceed at restricted speed) he could have been in the block but moving slow enough to stop before the break. Yes, you can see such a thing as a broken rail or misaligned point from the vantage point of the cab, but not from so far away as to bring a freight train to a stop when moving at timetable speed.

By the way, this sort of event is why it is considered a good idea to set welded rail so that is stress free at a high temperature rather than a low one. If the rail is set for a high neutral temperature, the nature of a failure will be of this kind, a rail break, in which case the train may be able to pass over it or if it derails stay close to in line with the track. If the break occurs when there is no train in the block, it will be stopped by the signal system before it even gets to the break. If the welded rai is set to be stress free at too low a temperature, then the nature of failure will be for the rail to buckle at a high temeprature. First, if this happens the signal system knows nothing so that there is no possibility of the signals stopping a train before it gets to it. Second, the buckle will most likely occur as a train is going over it, as the shaking of the track from the train will likely be the last straw to cause the track to kick out sideways. The, with it being buckled out it will give the wheels passing over it a strong sideways kick meaining that the derail cars will be far more scattered to the sides.

 

[jis]

I see that I had missed a not at a crucial place in my post. According to the guy reporting the locomotive did pass over the broken rail before stopping.

George, you may very well be right about the signal thing. I was just reporting what I read. They actually separated the engines from the train to clear the point of the break so that the track crew could fix it. Then they put the train together after the track was fixed and proceeded south. Of course they also had to get a new crew because the old crew timed out. Operation through there was already at restricting speed because of the report from 98. After the quick fix, the track was reopened at 10 mph apparently, pending more permanent repair.

 

[VentureForth]

According to Gene Poon's posting in TO, the Crescent derailed due to a broken stock rail at a switch that it just passed over. Then it managed to cross a short bridge in the derailed state before coming to a stop.

In a separate report on TO we also learned that the same night 98(24) possibly passed over a rail that was in the process of breaking, just south of Savannah, about 3 miles south of S. Ogeechee on CSX's Nahunta sub, and reported it, causing a restricted speed order to be put in place. The next train to pass was southbound freight train L031, that stopped after seeing the broken rail but before the locomotives had passed over it. There was no derailment, but the railroad was shut down until the track was fixed. Report was from the crew of 91, which was stuck behind the freight together with 97 and 53 for many hours while the track was fixed.

Holy crap. That's where I live. Literally 1000 feet from there. This is particularly concerning. Sperry Rail Services JUST went over this line a week ago Monday. Shouldn't they have caught this? The temperature has been fluctuating wildly - from low 30s to 80s over just a couple of days.

Wow. Again, I say Wow.

 

[jis]

Venture, when 98 went through at 79 mph they reported that something was probably falling apart under them. That is what caused the speed restriction to be put in place. But fortunately of course, 98 luckily made it across with no incident.

 

[George Harris]

I see that I had missed a not at a crucial place in my post. According to the guy reporting the locomotive did pass over the broken rail before stopping.

George, you may very well be right about the signal thing. I was just reporting what I read. They actually separated the engines from the train to clear the point of the break so that the track crew could fix it. Then they put the train together after the track was fixed and proceeded south. Of course they also had to get a new crew because the old crew timed out. Operation through there was already at restricting speed because of the report from 98. After the quick fix, the track was reopened at 10 mph apparently, pending more permanent repair.

On the ohter hand, if the break occurred over a tie plate, it could possibley have allowed the signal current to bridge the gap between rail ends, thus letting the signals go clear. Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Maybe he was operating at restricted speed and the break did not register on him until he was too close to get the train stopped before going over it. He had to be pretty close to stopped for it to be only the engines going over it, which suggest that he was operating under some form of speed restriction.

 

[jis]

I see that I had missed a not at a crucial place in my post. According to the guy reporting the locomotive did pass over the broken rail before stopping.

George, you may very well be right about the signal thing. I was just reporting what I read. They actually separated the engines from the train to clear the point of the break so that the track crew could fix it. Then they put the train together after the track was fixed and proceeded south. Of course they also had to get a new crew because the old crew timed out. Operation through there was already at restricting speed because of the report from 98. After the quick fix, the track was reopened at 10 mph apparently, pending more permanent repair.

On the ohter hand, if the break occurred over a tie plate, it could possibley have allowed the signal current to bridge the gap between rail ends, thus letting the signals go clear. Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Maybe he was operating at restricted speed and the break did not register on him until he was too close to get the train stopped before going over it. He had to be pretty close to stopped for it to be only the engines going over it, which suggest that he was operating under some form of speed restriction.

Yes. Freight L031 was operating under severe speed restriction because of the report that was filed by PO98 going over very rough track a little earlier at that location.

 

[benjibear]

Looks like today's southbound Crescent is running as normal. Is this using spare equipment or was the train magically put back in contact with the rails?

 

[Gingee]

Is this train 98 also? We are going NYC to Ft. Lauderdale this summer. Then Ft. Lauderdale to Washington DC and Chicago. Is this the same train?

The Crescents are trains 19 and 20, the Silver Meteors are trains 97 and 98.

Thanks. Got confusing. Still uses the same tracks though - correct?

 

[PRR 60]

Is this train 98 also? We are going NYC to Ft. Lauderdale this summer. Then Ft. Lauderdale to Washington DC and Chicago. Is this the same train?

The Crescents are trains 19 and 20, the Silver Meteors are trains 97 and 98.

Thanks. Got confusing. Still uses the same tracks though - correct?

No. The Silver Meteor used CSX tracks through eastern North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia en route to Florida. The Crescent used Norfolk Southern tracks through central NC, SC and GA to Atlanta and then on to New Orleans.

 

[Gingee]

Venture, when 98 went through at 79 mph they reported that something was probably falling apart under them. That is what caused the speed restriction to be put in place. But fortunately of course, 98 luckily made it across with no incident.

oH OH Will be using 98 this summer.

 

[Ryan]

There's nothing to worry about, track problems that cause a derailment are rare.

 

[jis]

Yep. Remember this was a very unusual night with severe temperature variations from earlier in the day. This does not happen very often at all, indeed it is very very rare.