JayBee,
I'm having trouble reconstructing this in my mind. You seem to have the most information about what happened.
The Westbound Autorack was supposed to take siding at ESS Goodwell. At the Distant Signal they were given an Advance Approach and slowed to enter the siding. So far, so good. The Eastbound Container Train did not stop on the main at ESS Goodwell. That alone might not mean anything, depending on how close he was to ESS Goodwell. If he was within four signal blocks of ESS Goodwell, he should not have had a proceed (green) signal until the Westbound was in the siding at ESS Goodwell and the switch restored for through movement on the main. Of course, if that had happened, there would have been no collision.
You then state the collision happened on the main between Goodwell and Optima Siding. This would seem to me to be a head-on collision. Thus eliminating the circumstance that the Eastbound ran into the Westbound's train before he had fully cleared the main at ESS Goodwell. So, you say that the Westbound did not enter the siding at Goodwell? Or do you mean that the Westbound cleared the main at ESS Goodwell and re-entered the main at WSS Goodwell? If that is what happened, a properly functioning CTC system would not allow that.
Then you said that the Westbound Train had a meet with another Eastbound at Optima Siding. Is Optima Siding East or West of Goodwell Siding? Are you saying that the Westbound had gotten in the clear at Optima Siding, had a successful meet with an Eastbound, then pulled out to get smacked by a second Eastbound? How would he have gotten a clear signal coming out of WSS Optima with another train running into his face? More importantly, with CTC-controlled sidings, how could he have even been lined back onto the main in the face of an oncoming train?
Even if there was a massive failure of the CTC system, there were still two train crews and one or more dispatchers supposed to be watching what was going on. If the Westbound got the Advance Approach signal approaching ESS Goodwell, what did they see when they got to the switch? Was the switch lined for the siding? Did they get a clear or Lunar White aspect to enter the siding? If not, that should have told them something was seriously wrong.
Why would the Eastbound be sailing along at 68mph in the face of an oncoming train on straight track? Did they get a clear signal despite the oncoming Westbound?
Again, if they did, something had to be wrong with the signal system. But could they not see what was happening?
And why were the trains crews not in radio communication with each other? Or were they, but maybe it was by then too late?
And what was the dispatcher doing while all this was happening?
Catastrophic train accidents almost never can be attributed to one sole cause. The more serious the accident, the greater the chances it was the result of more than one factor. If there was a problem with the CTC (and in this case I strongly suspect that there was), it is still the responsibility of the humans involved to realize that and try to avoid as much damage as possible. It is most important for the train crews, they are the ones who are most apt to lose their lives. It is a grave responsibility for the dispatchers, too, to have so many lives in their hands.
Les