Five derailments and a hazmat fire in a few days

Derailments are becoming similar to Chicago shootings in that they now happen so frequently that they are no longer news. I agree with those that think this increase in derailments is caused by Precision Scheduling Railroading. In particular, the part where you layoff people and defer maintenance to make your operating ratio look good to increase your share price. Also, running longer trains to cut crews is contributing to derailments.

I've been tracking train wrecks in general and CN's derailment in their St. Clair Tunnel, but I think this burst of whoopsies is worthy of its own post.

UP dumps autoracks in a 12,000' long train

Mark Gillins shared a post by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Nevada with six photos and the comment: ''Photos from the recent trail derailment. Please do not travel this area unless absolutely needed while UPRR conducts clean up."
Randall Klessig Rainbow Canyon?
Kelly S St Clair Yes I think between Caliente and Elgin [Actually, it must be south of Elgin because County Road 4230 is expected to be partially closed 7-10 days. (Another source indicated 4-5 days.)]
Jeremy Frampton maybe they will learn not to build them 12,000 ft someday.
David Jolley Union Pacific keeps running our trains bigger and bigger to save money. Yet, they don't care about the safety of its employees or the public. Looks like they lost money on this one. Hope the crew was alright. But, this is the cost of pure greed.

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FoxNews said the train had 33 cars. I suspect that is the number of cars that were considered damaged. Even if a autorack remains on the tracks, they will scrap the contents if they moved in the car during the wreck because of excessive deceleration forces. "Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee told Fox 13 said some train cars had been hauling hazardous material, but those cars weren't affected in the crash." (The Fox 13 link does correctly report that it was 33 cars that derailed. It also adds "A hazmat tanker was two cars away from the derailed section of the train.")

JR Ruiz shared a different selection of photos.

(Update: news24hlive is dated Jan 3, 2020 and written in the present tense. But they have the same photos as above, which happened in July, 2019! Fortunately, I remembered writing about this derailment and was able to find these notes to update. However, my main interest now is some comments on Oscar Monroy's share.
Arlyn White I actually supervised the building of that train.
That happened this past year. Changed rules and everything that pile up did.
Sal Espinosa Arlyn White what was the cause of the derailment.
Arlyn White Sal Espinosa it was considered a "perfect storm" in train building. According to the information I heard. It was due to "tonnage profile". The train left it's origin legally built. If memory serves me right it was somewhere in the 22000-23000 trailing tons. The problem was discovered after the initial investigation was done. That with the auto racks running on the "head end" of the train with their long drawbars and the amount of tonnage behind them that it literally shoved them off of the rails it was so heavy.

Eric Cook And I doubled that train out.
Arlyn White Eric Cook lol what are you doing
Eric Cook Watching everyone talk about the train you built that changed everything
Arlyn White Yeah made my life miserable with auto racks

Danny Lynch What was the length of this train?
Arlyn White Danny Lynch if memory serves me right 12000 to 15000 ft.
Danny Lynch Arlyn White can’t believe they would run a train that length with that many rack cars. That’s an accident waiting to happen. The amount of slack is in itself is a derailment.
Arlyn White Danny Lynch we run them nearly everyday. I have been a Yardmaster for 17 years. At that length we run a mid dpu train. Engines up front and engines in the middle and sometimes 1 on the rear to push.
Danny Lynch Arlyn White yea I know I retired as yardmaster with BNSF was a brakeman/switch/conductor. I retired just after the BN-SF merger. We were scrapping for engines. But the way they run trains of this length is idiotic. Believe me I know, I’ve been thrown from one end of a caboose to the other from slack action. Back then we ran 6500’ trains and that was a long train.
Arlyn White Danny Lynch 6500' is a winter restriction these days.
Danny Lynch Arlyn White yea I know.

[And there were a lot more comments about Jeeps are already junk and all of these vehicles will go to the crusher.]

Canadian Pacific derails on IAIS/Rock Island bridge across the Mississippi

This has not only closed the road that uses the lower deck, it has closed Lock #15.

OurQuadCities
The lock is also closed to barge traffic as the swing span cannot be moved. Railroad officials informed the Arsenal that they must bring a crane from one of two remote locations to put the train back on the tracks.

Here’s a view from our weather cam
[I wonder why Conadian Pacific is using IAIS tracks. Are they still detouring around floods?]

CSX flips over some scrap steel gondolas in Bristol, CT

Mark A Redman posted
Derailment, Bristol, Connecticut July 10
[It is not a string-line derailment because it is on straight track and the cars are obviously not empty. Bad track?]

Dumping ballast the wrong way

Joe Dockrill shared two photos.
Joe Dockrill gotta empty both sides, Herzog door may have stuck, one goes they all go right John Vukoja?
John Vukoja Joe Dockrill ....sometimes not all....all in the curve maybe....if you can’t empty the other side.....put it in the center....and if you keep within a door/ pocket on both sides you’ll be golden.
[Unfortunately, I don't understand John's explanation.]
Andrew Beeman Same thing happened on the railroad I work for before I got hired on. Happened to be working on the same town they knocked it over in.

No one was hurt, but one side of the car unloaded before the other side, and on a slightly elevated curve, and over she went. Came uncoupled before it knocked the loco over though

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Two locomotives, several rail cars derail at Union Pacific yard in Pocatello

IdahoStateJournal
Two Union Pacific diesel locomotives and seven rail cars derailed early Thursday morning at the Pocatello rail yard....Union Pacific officials said that nothing spilled out of the derailed rail cars, which included tanker cars, but a small amount of diesel fuel did spill from one of the derailed locomotives.
Keith Smith Buck Brown no rcl switchers went through locked switch onto the main. I was right by it when it happened. 2:30 in the morning. Dark as anything the rest of the night. Took the power out to the whole yard.
David Guerrera Keith Smith That's about right everything covered up no investigation everyone go back to work I know if and engineer was on that engine it would not have happened. What RR I worked for the UP.
Arthur Mitchell In Denver the crew was running the moves on a remote from the far end of the cut. Instead of running the remote toward the cut it was actually running the other way. It got out on the main outside the zone and nearly ran down our track inspector.

Screenshot @ -0.20, cropped

CSX crashes three locomotives in their Avon Yard

Screenshot @ 1:06
"Firefighters say three locomotives collided, puncturing a saddle tank, which sparked a fuel-fed fire that engulfed several trains."

Update, the hits just keep coming

Neil Ruddy posted five photos with the comment: "Derailment spills windmills at Avon, IA yard."

It appears to me that something stopped the truck of the front flat car with so much force that it stopped the front flatcar so quickly that its load slid off and the flatcar behind it rode on top of the front flatcar. But I have no idea what could stop a truck with that much force.

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And they just keep falling.

Pierce Tomlin shared
John Joy Is it just me or does this seem to be happening more often than it has in the past. Just saying reduced maintenance?
Keith Smith John Joy news in salt lake is running a big story on it tonight. They have been gathering information. 3 more derailments in the area since they taped for tonight. They keep having to update it.

Hays Police Department posted
Shortly after 5pm on Sunday July 14th the Union Pacific Railroad contacted dispatch informing them of a train derailment in Hays near 9th and Milner. At this time there are 3 tanker cars laying on their side off the track and a 4th still on the track. The tanker cars contain ethanol however there are no leaks so there are no hazards to the public. As a precaution there have been limited housing evacuations in the immediate vicinity. No intersections are being blocked however the Hays Fire Department has established a 300 foot perimeter around the derailment. The traveling public is asked to avoid this area and observe all cones and barricades.

Spokesman
Train crews were working Wednesday morning, July 17, 2019, at the scene of a derailment where six train cars, including some tankers hauling molten sulfur, came off the tracks in Spokane Valley near the corner of Sprague Avenue and Havana Street. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
[Yet another UP booboo. There were no molten sulfur leaks and street traffic was not blocked.]

I skipped the report of NS stringlining on Horseshoe Curve a couple of weeks ago. But they again put light empties at the beginning of a long train and derailed six empty cars. [WTAJ]

UP is racing NS to see who can derail more cars because of their new PSR mentality of running long trains.
Anthony Bucci posted three photos with the comment: "60ish sand cars near Bethany, MO yesterday on the UP Trenton sub."
Spencer Rodriguez 69 cars
(KCTV has drone video)

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BSNF has had three derailments in one Iowa county in just a little over a year.

G&W's RCP&E (Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern) didn't bother to send a track inspector out after a heavy rain. They let a train find a washout because of a flash flood near New Underwood, SD. The two crewman had to be rescued from the the locomotive that started the "accordion." [posts one, two]

You normally can't tell that coal cars are bottom dump cars from an aerial photo. This is on the former C&EI north of Terre Haute, so this is CSX's mainline for traffic going south out of Chicago.

Gene Kelsheimer posted
PolenJoann Guillott Binky Bolton: did we have any accidents with our unit coal trains, on the KCS/L&A loaded or mty?
pg
Binky Bolton Not that I know of
PolenJoann Guillott Binky Bolton me either.
Randy Johnson Mike Anderson UP has had something like 12 this year all over the system.
[Several photos of the cleanup effort were added as comments if you scroll down through all of the usual PSR noise.]

People evacuated because of an octane leak

Two derailments showed up in my Facebook feed in one day: UP and CSX. It has gotten to the point I don't even bother to read about them anymore because no one will admit what caused the derailment.

Screenshot, this is one of over a handful of videos I saw about this derailment in a UP yard in Dupo, IL.
"Multiple trains were on fire" because it happened in a yard. From a UP statement: "Initial information from the scene indicates that the tank car contains a flammable liquid called methyl isobutyl ketone. It is typically used as a solvent." The smoke caused extensive evacuations, including schools. 16 cars

Screenshot, from the raw helicopter footage via fox2now, 16 cars are reported off the tracks

This article indicates 13 of the cars spilled, but only one caught on fire. Does that mean that if a tank car is carrying a benign liquid that it punctures easily? Actually, I suspect it was 13 cars were knocked over, not spilling fluids. Especially since many of the damaged cars are covered hoppers. Comments on this post indicate the engineer must have kept on shoving because he didn't realize cars were falling off the track until the resistance got real high. Otherwise he would have been travelling way to fast for yard work to crunch the cars like we see in the photo.

I have written about locomotives being derailed into a canyon, but I could not find them. That is so frustrating. But I do think this is a different derailment.

Carson Oliver posted
Derailment of CN Train #355 after a massive rock slide

Brian Litherland: The locomotive is an ES44 and weighs 416,000 pounds, approx 185 tons with the trucks attached, so a fair few tonnes lighter without the trucks being attached. One hell of a recovery operation though.

[The crew members survived, but they had to wait seven hours to be rescued.]

Another comment said the trucks are 60% of the weight of the locomotive. I can imagine that traction motors are heavy, but I didn't think they were that heavy.

To summarize some comments, the crane was used to keep the locomotive from nosing into the cliff. The locomotive was raised by the winches on the sidebooms.]

Daniel Nolan: Old photo

This image shows the recovery of a Canadian National (CN) train that derailed in Fraser Canyon, near Lytton, British Columbia, in 2007.

The train, identified as CN Train #355, derailed after a massive rock slide.

A large crane from Northern Crane Service and several bulldozers were on site for the recovery operation.

The train's locomotive is seen hanging precariously on the side of a steep embankment.

Eric C. Ritari: Daniel Nolan sidebooms not dozers.

Jordan Miles Graff: January 4th 2007 Fraser Canyon British Columbia

Steve Grasha: CBC News · Posted: Jan 05, 2007 1:56 PM PST | Last Updated: January 5, 2007

The CN engineer who was driving the train that derailed in B.C.'s Fraser Canyon early Thursday says he was terrified as his locomotive slid 50 metres down a steep slope.

Hans Nederpel was at the controls of train 355, colleague Earl McGrail at his side, when they went around a corner near Lytton and saw a huge pile of rocks on the track.

Nederpel said they tried to slow down the 105-car train, but it was too late and the locomotive smashed into the rockslide.

"We hit and lifted," he told CBC News. "We could feel ourselves lifting and kind of turning."

Nederpel said it was moment of terror as the locomotive slid down the steep embankment.

"I can't piece it together in my mind yet exactly how we ended up where we did, but from there on everything happened very quickly."

A few seconds later, the locomotive stopped on its side and the two men kicked through a window to get out.

"Oh, my heart was racing. It's still racing," said Nederpel.

"But we get out, we have a quick assessment, the engine was shut down, there was no fuel leaking and we moved as far away from it as we could."

They couldn't go far. The steepness of the slope prevented the two men from climbing back up to the track, about 50 metres above them.

They had to wait seven hours to be rescued, but rescue crews managed to get blankets and hot food and drink down to them.

When the sun came up, climbers rappelled

down and lifted the two men out.

Nederpel is now at home recovering from the frightening ordeal.

He said he's OK except for a few bruises, but added there was a psychological impact, and he's not yet prepared to drive down that track near Lytton again.

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Kenny Heil: Probably a 550-750ton crane.

Benny Wilson: Kenny Heil no siree, as a technician that works on liebherr ltm cranes, I can tell you a 500t has 2 fewer axles. It might be a 750 ot 800t. But its definitely not a 500. And it could be a 900, as the 900 has 8 axles like the one in the picture.

Cliff Wilkie: Fortunately, at that time in 2007, CN & CP were already operating directional on each others’ subdivisions through the canyon. CN at least had the ability to operate in both directions over CP on the opposite side of the canyon while that wreck & landslides were cleared up.

Rebecca Rosolek: I worked out of Kamloops for a short time after this happened. There were many more accidents on these tracks , based on the history of that sub. I talked to the general track manager ( whatever he's called) and he said this spot is the most dangerous spot in all of CN both in Canada and in the states.

Claude Beauchemin shared

Louis Becker commented

Dennis DeBruler commented on Benny's comment
The website says 450 or 700, link [Facebook did not abbreviate the link.]

Comments on Carson's post

Brad Eckel commented on Carson's post
Image before they started the cleanup, removal or 2nd engine and cars, stabilizing the rock slide, bringing in equipment to raise the lead car from where it ended up down the embankment.

Steve Mihell commented on Carson's post
Derailment was at Lasha MP 97.5 on the Ashcroft sub. Here's a couple more pics for the non-believers.

Proof that the sidebooms, not the crane was lifting it out of the canyon. And this shows that the crane was not used to keep it from nosing into the cliff, but to hold the tail end when it no longer had a cliff to slide against.

Terry Fisher via Dennis DeBruler

Rae Sexton commented on Carson's post
The photo is real, I was there to inspect the locomotive, when it was raised and set on the trucks (Bogies), and to inspect the locomotive ensuring safe travel. the trucks had previously been removed and refurbished. The Cats were anchored in behind the rail. The Big crane only lifted the tail end enough so the Cats could wench the Locomotive, Professional mountain scalers would have to climb multiple times to reposition the cables.