Expert blames ballast for Auto Train crash
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jccollins
Conductor
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- Nov 2, 2002
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Hm, CSX was trying to "skimp by" with too little rock. The track buckling would have probably been fine if one of their slower, heavier freight trains went over it, but the Amtrak trains *usually* travel faster and are not as heavy. I'm not sure. It is too bad, though, to hear that this derailment could have been prevented by a little better track maintenance by CSX. I think that CSX should be held responsible for the cost to repair the damaged Amtrak Superliner cars instead of being fined by the government. Why should Amtrak have to suffer the direct loss of the equipment if it was CSX's fault? CSX should be held responsible for this if it is the case.
Speaking of accountability, this reminds me of a recent incident (about 3 weeks ago), when the SB Coast Starlight Train 11 arrived in Sacramento (on time, too!). It usually stops for 20 minutes while a fuel truck fills it up. The fuel truck was not at the Sacramento Station when the Starlight arrived and did not show up for OVER 2 HOURS. The train was delayed for 2 hours in Sacramento waiting for the fuel truck. It was kind of difficult to explain this delay to 18 passengers waiting to board it in Martinez... Again, no accountability. There should be a HUGE fine for delaying a full train of passengers! :angry:
P.S: We ended up telling the passengers waiting for the train that it was waiting for a freight train to clear the tracks before it could leave the station. This was accepted much better than if we would have told them the real case. Always better to blame the freight. :blink:
Speaking of accountability, this reminds me of a recent incident (about 3 weeks ago), when the SB Coast Starlight Train 11 arrived in Sacramento (on time, too!). It usually stops for 20 minutes while a fuel truck fills it up. The fuel truck was not at the Sacramento Station when the Starlight arrived and did not show up for OVER 2 HOURS. The train was delayed for 2 hours in Sacramento waiting for the fuel truck. It was kind of difficult to explain this delay to 18 passengers waiting to board it in Martinez... Again, no accountability. There should be a HUGE fine for delaying a full train of passengers! :angry:
P.S: We ended up telling the passengers waiting for the train that it was waiting for a freight train to clear the tracks before it could leave the station. This was accepted much better than if we would have told them the real case. Always better to blame the freight. :blink:
Amfleet
Engineer
It will be interesting to see if the ballast problem also casued Cpaitol Limted #30 to jump the tracks in Maryland last July.
battalion51
Engineer
Amfleet, according to CSX officials the track where the Kensington derailment occured was having traack maintence performed when the derailment occured. New track had been installed at the site, but an automatic sanding device (or something like that) had broken, so the crew finished up the work by hand and placed a 25 MPH slow order on the track until the work could be completed mechanically. A track inspector, thinking the work had been completed removed the order mistakenly. So the 60 MPH was reinstated thus causing the derailment.
Amfleet
Engineer
I had not heard of that incident. Could you direct me to a website with that information?
Amfleet,
Try this article from NCI's Desination Freedom newsletter. I'll look for others but this will get you started. This is with regard to the derailment of the Capital this past summer, and the NTSB's preliminary findings.
DF:Newsletter
Try this article from NCI's Desination Freedom newsletter. I'll look for others but this will get you started. This is with regard to the derailment of the Capital this past summer, and the NTSB's preliminary findings.
DF:Newsletter
battalion51
Engineer
Amfleet, I heard the Kensington information through a friend who has an Aunt that works for the NTSB in Washington
G
Guest
Guest
How is track matineance performed on a daily basis anyways? For example, do they have to work on one section at a time, even if it was say, one mile long?
Why is CSX so lazy anyways? If anyone is listening there at CSX, my one piece of advice would be to, in this instance with the A.T., take responsibility for your own actions, please. They may not realize or simply just may not care that this will only hurt Amtrak, the people that ride Amtrak, and the railroading industry itself. Therefore, they've pretty much shot themselves in the foot, even though they weren't found to be at fault, though the higher-ups do know, that when it comes right down to it, they were.
Which reminds me of some other derailment. August, 08,1997. I believe that was the correct date. The eastbound SW Chief derails in Arizona somewhere after the crew change point in Kingman, AZ - due to heavy downpours in the surrounding areas that caused a bridge to go bye-bye. :unsure:
My only question is this. How could a track matainist or bridge foreman (or whatever ) come out to the site a mere 20-30 minutes before the train crashed and then the bridge gets washed out? If that is really the case, it's a miracle then how nature does work. After all, even though the train was doing about 90-92 mph, there were no fatalities, thank goodness, which does speak volumes for the Superliner equpment.
But, my point is, is that I think we need more precautions, money spent on, and serious inquires made on America's rails. I think a wise move would have been to at least have the train slow down to at the most 40mph. Now, I don't really know if that would've helped, but it may have. Alas, we will never know, now will we. :unsure:
Why is CSX so lazy anyways? If anyone is listening there at CSX, my one piece of advice would be to, in this instance with the A.T., take responsibility for your own actions, please. They may not realize or simply just may not care that this will only hurt Amtrak, the people that ride Amtrak, and the railroading industry itself. Therefore, they've pretty much shot themselves in the foot, even though they weren't found to be at fault, though the higher-ups do know, that when it comes right down to it, they were.Which reminds me of some other derailment. August, 08,1997. I believe that was the correct date. The eastbound SW Chief derails in Arizona somewhere after the crew change point in Kingman, AZ - due to heavy downpours in the surrounding areas that caused a bridge to go bye-bye. :unsure:
My only question is this. How could a track matainist or bridge foreman (or whatever
) come out to the site a mere 20-30 minutes before the train crashed and then the bridge gets washed out? If that is really the case, it's a miracle then how nature does work. After all, even though the train was doing about 90-92 mph, there were no fatalities, thank goodness, which does speak volumes for the Superliner equpment.But, my point is, is that I think we need more precautions, money spent on, and serious inquires made on America's rails. I think a wise move would have been to at least have the train slow down to at the most 40mph. Now, I don't really know if that would've helped, but it may have. Alas, we will never know, now will we. :unsure:
G
Guest_-Late Shore-
Guest
BTW,
I typed all that that you may have just read but just forgot to put my own name in the box, in case your wondering who wrote it. Sorry! lol :lol:
I typed all that that you may have just read but just forgot to put my own name in the box, in case your wondering who wrote it. Sorry! lol :lol:
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