Large Scale Central

Amtrak derailment at DuPont, Wa

Prototypes
#41

https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20171222.aspx

[QUOTE]The lead locomotive’s event data and video recorders were successfully downloaded with the manufacturer’s assistance and processed in the NTSB’s lab in Washington, D.C. An initial review of the final portion of the accident sequence revealed the following information, which is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation continues:

Inward-facing video with audio captured the crew’s actions and their conversations. A forward-facing video with audio captured conditions in front of the locomotive as well as external sounds.
The crew was not observed to use any personal electronic devices during the timeframe reviewed.
About six seconds prior to the derailment, the engineer made a comment regarding an over speed condition.
The engineer’s actions were consistent with the application of the locomotive’s brakes just before the recording ended. It did not appear the engineer placed the brake handle in emergency-braking mode.
The recording ended as the locomotive was tilting and the crew was bracing for impact.
The final recorded speed of the locomotive was 78 mph.

A preliminary report detailing the facts and circumstances of the crash developed in this early stage of the investigation will be available on the NTSB website in the coming days.

The entire investigation is expected to last 12-24 months.[/QUOTE]

#42

I read somewhere that they are investigating whether milepost warning signs had been either been just recently removed or placed in the wrong location, so the crew didn’t know they were entering a slow down zone. Anyone else hear this?

#43

I haven’t come across the milepost/sign item, but then there is much I don’t catch in the media.

I am in the mood to add a bit of related content from one of the 4 Ry trade journals regularly looked at.

Talgos take over Cascade corridor01 Feb 1999

INTRO: Amtrak and Washington State DoT have put new tilting trains into service in the US Pacific Northwest, where traffic has doubled in the last five years.

…
Branded as Amtrak Cascades, the Talgos are the latest element in a long range plan that could see up to eight daily return trips between Seattle and Portland at up to 200 km/h.
…
Early reaction to the trains has been extremely positive, further vindicating WSDoT’s aggressive pro-passenger rail policy. The new stock forms part of a $200m programme to improve services and upgrade the 750 km Cascade corridor, most of which falls within the state. Some funding has come from Oregon, the US federal government, and British Columbia. Allowing the tilting Talgos to run at higher speeds through curves has already cut 25min off the 3h 55min schedule for conventional Amtrak rolling stock.

Annual ridership in the corridor has jumped from just over 226000 in 1993, the year before the first of two leased Talgos were placed in service, to 550000 in 1998, an increase of 137%.
…
The Talgos operate in push-pull mode with a so-called cabbage (cab-baggage) car at one end. These are life-expired F40 locos with the diesel engine removed and the engine compartment converted into baggage storage space. The cab and controls are retained to work with the F59.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/talgos-take-over-cascade-corridor.html

#44

"A retired railway official who worked on PTC offers the following observations:

“BNSF is not responsible for track construction and maintenance or signal installation and maintenance on the formerly BNSF-owned Lakewood Subdivision. Those functions have been assigned to contractors by the present owner, Sound Transit. BNSF does provide dispatching service. The dispatcher is the Seattle Subdivision dispatcher.

“Even though PTC was an unfunded mandate for all of the freight railroads, BNSF leadership was determined to have PTC installed by the original December 31 2015 deadline. That would have happened had it not been for the Federal Communications Commission blocking the permitting of the necessary communication towers until pressured into changing the process by the Obama Administration and Congress. BNSF had planned to develop and install PTC on its own before the 2008 mandate, and intended to pay for it with crew size reductions in the core territories where implemented."

"For many months now, the only trains operating on the Seattle Subdivision without operational PTC have been Amtrak trains. The same situation exists on many other BNSF subdivisions. As a matter of fact, PTC had already been installed and was in full operation on the Seattle Sub when an Amtrak train passed a red absolute signal and derailed in the switch point power derail protecting the Chambers Bay Drawbridge earlier this year. The problem was Amtrak trains were not PTC-equipped.

“The question has been asked as to why the new operation on the Lakewood Subdivision was implemented on December 18, before PTC implementation was complete. The answer: it did not make any difference since none of the Amtrak locomotives had PTC anyway."

http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/north-america/overspeed-likely-cause-of-amtrak-crash.html

#45

Good information

Thanks Dave M.

#46

More information by a railfan passenger who was on the train. I will warn ahead of time that towards the end in what is called “3RD thing” and “6TH thing” it gets political so I would please ask that there be no comments on that just to keep it civil here and not to cause our host any grief. Otherwise this is a very good article with photos. I will kill the link myself if this goes south.

https://transitsleuth.com/

#47

It amazes me how many people post articles online, but don’t proofread them properly. Some passages in that text were challenging to read, but it is in interesting perspective on an accident, a perspective we seldom have.

#48

Hiatt is a former BNSF engineer who has been working as a railroad investigator with the Bremseth Law firm in Minnetonka, Minnesota, for the past 25-years. He lives in Puyallup, and has spent the four days since the deadly derailment speaking with multiple Amtrak and other railroad employees.

…

Based on what railroad employees have told him, Haitt said the engineer hit the curve at 78-miles an hour instead of 30 MPH because he most likely did not know there was a tight curve ahead.

“They just didn’t know where they were at.”

“These guys were trained in darkness. All of them,” Hiatt said he was told. “They couldn’t get availability to the track during the daytime, so that’s part of the factor.”

Another problem, according to Hiatt’s sources; too many engineers received training at once. “I’ve heard six people were in the locomotive cab, which has three seats.”

Hmm, event windows, deadlines, hurrying, agency image before safety … brings to mind an infamous accident involving a different mode of transportation.

“They were hurrying,” he told KIRO 7. “They had this little, tiny window and they had this December 18th deadline. Deadlines can’t be the dictator of how you do things. Safety has to be.”

http://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/railroad-investigator-says-its-wrong-to-point-a-finger-at-train-engineer/668115816

#49

Yes interesting read here and a lot of speculation. There is a lot more to the rest of the story. As I spent 31 years as a Track safety specialist one learns not all info is given to out side folks. Later RJD

#50

Interesting article today:“Details of ex-railroad chief’s side hustle revealed” https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/28/moonlighting-railroad-chief-mississippi-sheriff-370189