QD 124 Derailment...and why is there NO notice in the media?

Not sure where the disconnect is... everything I stated was from the FRA report. Here's the link:

http://content.news10now.com/syrcontent ... 2-2007.pdf

Talk to me again when you get the current inspections results. The inspection began in March after the Onieda incident. Which has resulted in the numerous slow orders, CEO Michael Ward promising to upgrade CSX's testing parameters up to FRA standards. And alot of this discussion. Now, in the past week several, work trains with ballast, and ties began working the area as CSX appears to be begin to address the problems. As previously mentioned. The afore listed derailments have been determined to be the result of track failures as mentioned, by the NTSB and the FRA. Being they are incidents, they are not part of the inspections, which have taken place since, the January 19-22, 2007 inspections, which were conducted by FRA visual inspections. The recent inspections were conducted by telemetry vehicles with FRA inspectors conducting additional indepth operational and equipment exams. All of the derailments took place on main line trackage, signaled territory. Checking switch points at 50-60 mph, or using the trains ID instead of the engine number did not have any influence upon these accidents.

Lets look over the January inspection results.
Track: 99 inspections found 666 defects and 17 violations(pending Fines),
failure to replace defective rails and joint bars, failure to make repairs on previously discovered defects.
Oper. practices: 149 inspections, 269 defects, 22 viol.s Mech. dept. working on equipment without using blue flag protection, rail cars standing on main without handbrakes (inexcusable, T&E)
Motive Power/ Equip.: 169, defects 2178, 101 viols., Initial terminal test, failure to ID defects, Ignoring freight car safety defects(mech. dept.)
safety& train Control: 88, 229 Defects, 34 viol.s cab signal records not on engine, dailey/after trip test not preformed(cab signal), (Merch. Dept.)
Haz.Mat. 78, 176 defects, 34 violations, tank cars with loose closures (Mech. and T&E), Train crews w/o Haz.Mat. shipping papers(inexcusable, T&E)
Of the 8 incidents which are noted on the report, the Cheektowaga, NY, boxcar off of overpass onto busy street resulted from broken frog. East Rochester derailment with cars off of overpass and into residentail area striking houses, was determined to be a broken rail. Brooks KY, derailment with Haz.Mat spill and fire, was a broken Joint bolt. North baltimore Ohio, wreck was one train derailing and striking anoth at a highway crossing causing several injuries. Was determined to be an insecured chain hanging from a railcar catching a switch handle opening switch points under the train. Syracuse, NY Mech employee struck by RC train, fatality. Determined to be RCO not watching shove move, equipment not illimunated, inadaquate lighting of yard. Selkirk, NY, another Mech. employee struck by an engine, fatality. Employee inattention. The other 2 I am not familiar with,(Woodstock, Md, and Patio, Ky)
Several years ago, I was almost killed in a wreck resulting from a runaway due to conductor bottling the air on the train. I take rule violations by fellow emoployees as a direct threat to me. Very serious, and take corrective action when I observe them. I do not wish to be the device of someone elses injury or death, nor my own. I, however can not correct the manner in which CSX maintains or fails to maintain the railroad which is a direct threat to my safety as well as fellow employees and the public. FRA's Boardman in a recent interview, stated that CSX's accident reduction trend appears to be continuing. However, increased traffic frequency and weight are wearing out the rail infastructure at a much faster rate and maintaince has not kept pace. CSX needs to increase it's maintainance practices to keep pace with the traffic now being run. Other railroad suffer derailments and accidents. But for some unfortunate circumstances, CSX has suffered more frequent, serious and publicized events. CSX needs to get itself back on track, and off the bulls eye. I truely hope it does.

IIRC Patio, Ky, was cars left unattened, not tied down, while crew switched.

However, increased traffic frequency and weight are wearing out the rail infastructure at a much faster rate and maintaince has not kept pace. CSX needs to increase it's maintainance practices to keep pace with the traffic now being run.

Agreed. It's that age-old problem that the rail industry is cyclical and necessary investment level often lags system deterioration. I share your hope... maybe the silver lining of this FRA investigation will be that it's a stark reminder that there's a real thin line between a safe railroad and a dangerous one.

On a somewhat related note, the Wall Street Journal has had several interesting articles this week about railroads- as an investment and about their investment in capacity expansion and maintenance. It appears that the prowler out there buying up railroad stock is none other than Warren Buffett! And if you can't trust Mr. Buffett on investment savvy, who can you trust!

The Buffett article is Buffett Stake May Signal Railroad to Be Corn Fed

The article, Rail Industry Balancing Capacity Investments With Returns has its critical elements, and is fairly balanced in opinion. Though not in the article: CSX invested $1.4 BILLION in capital improvements in 2006. CSX's net income in 2006 was $1.3 BILLION. Think of that: CSX is investing more than they're making. Put it in "human" terms: You make $75K/yr and you just took out a $85K loan to improve your business. That's huge! Just throwing that out there.... lots of catching up to do, but the company is moving (not as fast as many want) in the right direction.

Cowford wrote:On a somewhat related note, the Wall Street Journal has had several interesting articles this week about railroads- as an investment and about their investment in capacity expansion and maintenance. It appears that the prowler out there buying up railroad stock is none other than Warren Buffett! And if you can't trust Mr. Buffett on investment savvy, who can you trust!

The Buffett article is Buffett Stake May Signal Railroad to Be Corn Fed

The article, Rail Industry Balancing Capacity Investments With Returns has its critical elements, and is fairly balanced in opinion. Though not in the article: CSX invested $1.4 BILLION in capital improvements in 2006. CSX's net income in 2006 was $1.3 BILLION. Think of that: CSX is investing more than they're making. Put it in "human" terms: You make $75K/yr and you just took out a $85K loan to improve your business. That's huge! Just throwing that out there.... lots of catching up to do, but the company is moving (not as fast as many want) in the right direction.

That is the problem with "deferred maintenance." In the end, it costs you much more...in the case of a home or car, possibly more than the vehicle or structure is worth. In the case of a business...more than they can afford.

More than one business has gone splat for not spending on needed capital improvements. That it's catching up with CSX...is no surprise.

And, Warren Buffet's strategy is known only to him. He may be expecting a big government bailout. He may have reason to expect it.

Two weeks ago CEO M. Ward promised to address the issues raised by the recent incidents and the FRA's inspections of January and March. Within the past week ballast and rail trains have been in the area. It appears CSX is begining to stepup. It's a shame that it took such a series of accidents to bring on the corrective action. But as long as it gets dealt with. The Stock activity of late has been reported by Rueters as potential of and speculation of a hostile takeover. I'm not sure how I actually feel about that.

CSX invested $1.4 Billion bucks on capital improvements in '06 when they can't even keep their own tracks in good shape? Yet, they only made $1.3 Billion buck in 2006. I don't know about you guys, but I want to know where that 'extra' $100 million bucks came from.

TheChessieCatLives: The $1.4 billion was probably from a series of loans, to be paid off from future earnings. It's quite common for companies and individuals to borrow more than their yearly income - for instance, entering a mortgage for $250,000 while you only make $75,000 a year. In fact, CSX probably could have borrowed much more for infrastructure improvements and still been in excellent financial shape.

At least they are improving their track again.

Yep, exactly. Some of the money for improvements comes from cash flow, some comes from borrowing. Every year, the company borrows money in various ways such as bond issuance. They also pay out a significant amount to paying off debt that due. In 2006, CSX actually borrowed about $1B, paid down $1.2B and was left with ~$6B in long-term debt.

I know it makes most people's eyes glaze over, but railroad annual reports help you understand a lot about why railroads do things the way they do.

TheChessieCatLives wrote:CSX invested $1.4 Billion bucks on capital improvements in '06 when they can't even keep their own tracks in good shape? Yet, they only made $1.3 Billion buck in 2006. I don't know about you guys, but I want to know where that 'extra' $100 million bucks came from.

I am surprised no one pointed this out to you, ChessieCat. The profit of a business is the amount left over after everything else is paid and there is no other planned place to put it. Those two numbers you repeated have literally no reason to be the same or close, for that matter. They're just separate vegetables in the corporate income soup.

I wonder if we got off-thread a little?

The question remains as to why there is little or no media coverage of "train accidents", except for when we we hit a motor vehicle and somebody dies?

10more years wrote:I wonder if we got off-thread a little?

The question remains as to why there is little or no media coverage of "train accidents", except for when we we hit a motor vehicle and somebody dies?

Well, I am not so sure. We drifted, that's for sure, but we got down to how the physical plant got in such bad shape allowing so many derailments, like the one at CP124, to have happened, along with the speculation as to why these individual stories did not get wider, regional, state, or national coverage.

Of course it is all moot. CSX is presently spending multiple millions playing "catch-up" once Hillary, "the Schume", Boardman and probably some extremely nervous very large stockholders-of-record started putting the pieces together and decided their public responsibility (and their investment) was only little more stable than a poorly built house of cards.

Obviously to most folks a train wreck isn't too sexy unless someone very young or old is involved somehow. And that media position was largely reflected by our governing and regulatory officials. I think the original post was hinting that, except for local coverage, there was very little other coverage, certainly none linking the Ohio and New York derailments that all happened in a quite short period of time. I think the unasked question was eventually addressed once gov't and reg. folks finally woke up and started looking at the mess about to happen. And of course, once there were hazmat flames (Oneida, NY), there HAD to be action taken.

It is interesting the twists and turn these threads take following the object of livelihood, recreation, and for some, passion.