Coast Line train strikes debris

Heard this on the news yesterday.....wondering if anyone else heard about it.......

Train 3289, the 945 departure out of NYP struck debris west of Morgan draw on the Coast Line Friday night. Train was disabled, and after a police investigation the passengers were transfered to the next train, which was delayed behind it.

Thats pretty much what happened in a nutshell, Im sure they aren't releasing too many details, nor will I, but lets just say, that it could have been REAL ugly..........and everyone on that train, especially the engineer, is VERY lucky

Also, Saturday morning, a vehicle was hit, somewhere around the Red Bank area I wasn't able to get an Xing or train number though. I THINK it might have been at Navesink River Road, as there seemed to be some glass by the xing, but I dunno for sure.

Just happy things didn't get "ugly."

Friday night had the potential to be very ugly. It was by no means debris, but a carefully placed item on the tracks. As this is a public fourm, I am not going to give specifics, just know that it was bad. Usually the NJCL is a little rough during the summer, but this year might be really bad. People do not have respect for the trains. Within the last two weeks I have had three passengers calmly walk in front of my moving train on their way to the platform. At some point my luck (or theirs depending on your point of view) will run out and someone will get squished. Hopefully not, but I have a bad feeling.

You're right Notch, it wasn't debris in the common meaning of the word (branches, rocks, wood, stuff like that) but much more substancial and damaging than that.

That area up there, near Cliffwood Ave and County Rd xings is a little rough - have had a few close calls with trespassers up there, one was so close, my engineer was certain we hit the kid......seeing it wiht my own eyes, as well, I have no idea how we didn't.

Friday night was scary, and even though it wasn't my train, it COULD have been..........thats the scary part. And things could have very easily turned out much different and tragic.

Some advice to any railfans - don't go wandering around the ROW in Aberdeen/Cliffwood area in particular. I doubt Its gonna matter if you have a camera around your neck, and a book in your pocket, ANYONE in that area is going to be taken VERY seriously, adn more than likely reported to the dispatcher and PD.

Was it a shopping cart? Someone placed a shopping cart on the tracks of the Port Jeff branch on the LIRR some years ago and it really messed up the train. Or maybe a car?

Wow... was the debris on or right by the draw, because like you said, that could have been really ugly. Had the train hit it at a high-speed and been heading out over the draw, you could have had a portal draw accident without the second train.

Really glad nothing happened to seriously.

nick11a wrote:Just happy things didn't get "ugly."

I second that...

howardr142 wrote:Was it a shopping cart? Someone placed a shopping cart on the tracks of the Port Jeff branch on the LIRR some years ago and it really messed up the train. Or maybe a car?

I can't imagine a shopping cart doing much damage. Weird.

Notch 8 wrote:Friday night had the potential to be very ugly. It was by no means debris, but a carefully placed item on the tracks. As this is a public fourm, I am not going to give specifics, just know that it was bad. Usually the NJCL is a little rough during the summer, but this year might be really bad. People do not have respect for the trains. Within the last two weeks I have had three passengers calmly walk in front of my moving train on their way to the platform. At some point my luck (or theirs depending on your point of view) will run out and someone will get squished. Hopefully not, but I have a bad feeling.

Tonight I was doing a bit of railfanning in Red Bank while my kid was at karate. I was standing near the crossing and the engineer really let loose on the horn. Now I know why.

This incident that happened on Friday is exactly the reason why the railroad industry frowns upon Railfans. Instead of harrasing us while taking pictures, they should be encouraging us to be on the lookout for just such incidents. You never know what may happen while railfanning, the pictures you took could be used as key evidence. Maybe then, just maybe, the rail industry will look at us in a more positive way.

While I agree with you 100%, I wouldn't get your hopes up.

NJT will put the blame on anyone or anything they see fit whether or not it is justified.

Ironically enough, this afternoon, there was a group of trespassers in this same area, east of County Rd xing, fouling track 2 while a westbound was running on track 1. My eastbound was coming up on track 2, and a group of older teenages, some with cameras, scatter out of the way, and standing and leaning on the cat poles (still too close). They were promptly reported to the dispatcher by the westbound and my train.

I once had a stituation that almost got real ugly back in 1982. This was on Amtrak territory just east of Philadelphia. Someone piled up old ties in track 4 and stuck a stop sign on top of it. We hit it near full speed with two AEM7's and 14 cars (Amfleet and sleepers). Lot's of bouncing around and ties flying around, pretty scary, especially the sound of ties bouncing off the bottom of the coach. It luckly only tore the brake hose between my car and another and was only a 30 minute delay. This is one good reason all railroads should keep their ROW free of their own debris.

I recall seeing a photo of the leading truck of a PRR GG-1 resting on top of a box car door jammed between the guage on the NEC. Had the engineer had not been able to stop, it would have been a serious wreck.

Just saw on News12 tonight that they arrested the 19-year-old delinquent who did this, and he is being held on $100,000 bail.

What happened was he "allegedly" put a large, and full, propane tank on the tracks in the Cliffwood Beach area. There is no dispute that it was put there, because my train was a few behind it and we were delayed going through, as service was suspended for about 2 hours.

The train hit the tank, cab car first, and luckily, the propane in the tank DIDN'T explode, but the tank was ruptured, and the head 3 cars quickly filled with propane fumes – the cars were quickly evacuated, which were very full because the train was crowded that night, and teh passengers moved to the hind end of the train.

As I said in earlier post, this had the potential to be a VERY serious situation, adn possibly deadly – the tank could have exploded, derailed the train and/or damaged the car and hurt/killed crew and passengers inside of it. Everyone who was on the scene that night said that the crew and passengers were VERY lucky that it didn't explode.

And people wonder why railroaders get antsy when people are near/around ROWs.....

From WCBS' website