West-of-Deerfield Gawking

[newpylong]

I had heard 14 cars on the ground, blocking both mains. Probably just an estimate. Wondering if this was an area of a pull apart when it was so cold, and now so warm the rail has expanded...

It's single track there...

[Mikejf]

Thanks Newpy for the correction. Only repeating what I was told, not all that familiar with that section out there

[johnpbarlow]

Photos from Fireground360:

http://www.fireground360.com/web360/cha ... derailment

[neman2]

Photos from Fireground360:

http://www.fireground360.com/web360/cha ... derailment

Looking at these photos there is apparently an access road along these tracks (most likely the former second track) that would make cleanup go much faster.

[gokeefe]

Given that the train derailed on a curve you have to wonder how the crew caught it. Almost looks to me as if the ground actually acted as the braking force (as opposed to emergency braking).

[newpylong]

How the crew caught it? Cars in the dirt that bad you feel it.

[gokeefe]

How the crew caught it?

How they became aware that the train had derailed and applied the emergency brakes. The train itself does not appear to have derailed in such a way that would have broken hose connections on the brake line. But .... that's an observation based on no direct operating knowledge and minimal photography of the scene.

[johnpbarlow]

Excerpt from Ensco (self-proclaimed leading provider of railway safety technologies throughout the world) article entitled: "Keeping Your Trains on the Track – Strategies for Preventing Derailments"

Gage Widening and Rail Rollover
The problems that can be encountered with excessive wheel/rail interaction forces are not limited to wheel climb scenarios. For instance, if the lateral force generated by the flange contact between the wheel and the rail is relatively high, this force can cause lateral rail displacement. This rail displacement produces what is known as gage widening and can lead to a wheel/rail separation as shown in Figure 2.

Rail rollover, as shown in the left side of Figure 3, is one of the most common sources of accidents especially when the vehicle travels over the spiral transition between tangent, or straight, track and the full body of a curve. The critical value of L/V for rail rollover is approximated by the ratio D/H with D and H defined as per the illustration on the right side Figure 3. If the moment generated by the lateral force is higher than the moment generated by the vertical force, the rail can rotate about its corner.

Full article is at http://www.ensco.com/News-Media/pressre ... rticle=128

[newpylong]

How the crew caught it?

How they became aware that the train had derailed and applied the emergency brakes. The train itself does not appear to have derailed in such a way that would have broken hose connections on the brake line. But .... that's an observation based on no direct operating knowledge and minimal photography of the scene.

Well as I said the engineer would feel it. Those trains are light you feel everything. Every train has a feel and it wouldn't be hard to tell something with wrong with just a truck off. A heavy 80 car freight harder to tell if it's near the rear.

[NHV 669]

Given that the Recorder article shows the rear loco within a few cars of the first wheels on the ground, the crew probably caught it with their eyeballs as well. Just my $.02

[Mikejf]

The derailment is on the head end too. What I find rather interesting is the rail rolled under the cars and not the locomotives? Or could the rail rolling be a result of another defect, like broken joint bar or rail?

[johnpbarlow]

PAS trains may be on the move through Charlemont as of today per this news report: http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/31 ... charlemont

Did PAR use their wreck crane from E Deerfield to re-rail everything?

[newpylong]

They are using the over the road crane.

Still rerailing this AM.

[johnpbarlow]

There's talk of some eb detours over CSX on the CSX B&A Yahoo forum: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CSX ... sages/7764

[gokeefe]

The derailment is on the head end too. What I find rather interesting is the rail rolled under the cars and not the locomotives? Or could the rail rolling be a result of another defect, like broken joint bar or rail?

Sounds like a tie and spike problem to me. Heavy engines travel over the rail on the curve, crush the remaining ties but hold the rail in place due to weight. Once the heavy weight passes the rail rolls over when the well car passes (with greater lateral force than vertical). (?)