http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5349815/Amtrak-train-smashes-freight-South-Carolina.html
Oh crap - not good. Looks like it may have been head-on.
Amtrak is having some issues these days it would seem.
The Amtrak train was on the wrong track, and hit a parked CSX train. Why wouldn’t the engineer recognize that he isn’t on the track he is supposed to be on?
Rumor is both trains where running under track warrant control as the signal system was turned off for the activation of PTC. CSX train cleared up in the hole, but didn’t line the turnout for the main. Amtrak came through at track speed or maximum authorized TWC speed. TWC works great, but high level of human error.
From this angle, it looks as though a single track goes under an overpass and there is a siding turnout to the right. That’s where the freight train was parked.
Adam
Eric Schade said:
Amtrak is having some issues these days it would seem.
While having issues is being talked about, CSX have been having some issues for some time,
7/28/2017
STB concerned about ‘deteriorated service’ at CSX"The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has expressed concern to CSX about “deteriorated service” as a result of the company’s recent restructuring under new President and Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison.
In a letter sent to Harrison yesterday, the board said it has heard from CSX customers and industry stakeholders concerned about “increased transit times, unreliable switching operations, inefficient car routings, poor communications and coordination with CSX customer service, and acute disruption to customers’ business operations,” STB officials said in a press release.
Just found this,
But the worst may not be over. Roberts worried his wife would lose her job if she won’t be able to immediately return to work after the crash. Nevertheless, he saw something “uplifiting” in the experience.
“It really showed me how much I appreciate my wife,” Roberts said.
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198374764.html
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198374764.html#storylink=cpy
The CSX freight train was empty, stationary and on a loading track when the collision occurred, McMaster said. The Amtrak train was traveling about 50 mph, within the posted 59 mph speed limit, according to the regulatory staff agency.
“It appears to me that the CSX train was on the track it was supposed to be on,” McMaster said. “It appears Amtrak was on the wrong track.”
Tom Allen, a transportation safety director with the state ORS, said “it was probably a switching issue’’ that caused the Amtrak train to run onto the side track.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be looking into the matter as the lead investigative agency, Allen said. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board will be arriving on site all day, and that includes NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt, a Columbia native.
“Part of the preliminary indications are that it would have to be a switching issue,’’ Allen told The State. “It was no derailment caused by a flaw in the track. The Amtrak was on the wrong track.’’
CSX, which owns the track, would be responsible for maintaining the switch on the track, Allen said.
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198346879.html
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198346879.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198346879.html#storylink=cpy
The Amtrak train was on the wrong track, and hit a parked CSX train. Why wouldn’t the engineer recognize that he isn’t on the track he is supposed to be on?
Er, Dave, who owns the track and is responsible for the switching ?
And Mr Narrow Gauge Lover (who doesn’t seem to have a home address, which our BD says is a no-no) how come you always find these things in the UK Daily Mail? Don’t they get reported over here?
From looking at the Google Maps. It appears that there is only about < 250 yards from the switch onto the siding off the main line, and the impact point of the parked train. At 50 miles an hour, from the moment that the engineer realized he was being routed onto the siding, he dumps the emergency, and he would have still collided with the parked train.
Amtrak did nothing wrong, and could not have done anything to prevent this accident! CSX’s fault 100%
Dave Taylor said:
From looking at the Google Maps. It appears that there is only about < 250 yards from the switch onto the siding off the main line, and the impact point of the parked train. At 50 miles an hour, from the moment that the engineer realized he was being routed onto the siding, he dumps the emergency, and he would have still collided with the parked train.
I did a little math then googled for the conversion.
250 yards is 750 feet.
Conversion says 50 mph is 73.3 feet per second.
Call it 8 to 10 seconds to cover that distance.
Engineer would have to had become aware of that switch being incorrectly set a mile or more before getting to that switch in order to have had any chance.
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Dave Taylor said:
From looking at the Google Maps. It appears that there is only about < 250 yards from the switch onto the siding off the main line, and the impact point of the parked train. At 50 miles an hour, from the moment that the engineer realized he was being routed onto the siding, he dumps the emergency, and he would have still collided with the parked train.
I did a little math then googled for the conversion.
250 yards is 750 feet.
Conversion says 50 mph is 73.3 feet per second.
Call it 8 to 10 seconds to cover that distance.
Engineer would have to had become aware of that switch being incorrectly set a mile or more before getting to that switch in order to have had any chance.
Just what i figured . . . . .
Pete Thornton said:
The Amtrak train was on the wrong track, and hit a parked CSX train. Why wouldn’t the engineer recognize that he isn’t on the track he is supposed to be on?
Er, Dave, who owns the track and is responsible for the switching ?
And Mr Narrow Gauge Lover (who doesn’t seem to have a home address, which our BD says is a no-no) how come you always find these things in the UK Daily Mail? Don’t they get reported over here?
I’m not aware of any need to post a home address ? . . Never heer’d of that. Where would it be posted ?
If’n anyone cares ? . . . . .
I"m in the WILD WEST in the high desert of California beyond Landers and I can see the 29 Palms Marine Base from my veranda.
Pete Thornton said:
The Amtrak train was on the wrong track, and hit a parked CSX train. Why wouldn’t the engineer recognize that he isn’t on the track he is supposed to be on?
Er, Dave, who owns the track and is responsible for the switching ?
And Mr Narrow Gauge Lover (who doesn’t seem to have a home address, which our BD says is a no-no) how come you always find these things in the UK Daily Mail? Don’t they get reported over here?
CSX owns the track and is responsible. I didn’t realize the run on the wrong rails was so short. That explains why the engineer wasn’t able to avoid the accident.
Well yea, American press doesn’t always report all of the information.
Soon after he got off the train, Larkin said, arriving police officers told him to stop taking cellphone photos of the wreckage and not to share any of the images he had already captured.
“I thought it was a little strange,” Larkin said of the request. Eventually he was shuttled to a middle school with other passengers.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-train-crash-20180204-story.html
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Soon after he got off the train, Larkin said, arriving police officers told him to stop taking cellphone photos of the wreckage and not to share any of the images he had already captured.
“I thought it was a little strange,” Larkin said of the request. Eventually he was shuttled to a middle school with other passengers.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-train-crash-20180204-story.html
That’s disturbing. They have no authority to make such a demand.
How come you always find these things in the UK Daily Mail? Don’t they get reported over here?
No Television reception out here in the WILD WEST where i am located.
I find the best source for news is the UK Daily Mail web site.
Anything of real importance will show at the top . . . . and there is always some interesting stuff that is not reported in the US main stream news.
The Amtrak train was operating on train orders because the signal system was down for temporary maintenance and the switch had a locked padlock on it, in the open position. The engineer of the Amtrak train, by reports I read was fearful of dying in an Amtrak accident due to all the recent previous accidents. He had discussed it with many employees and family and was thinking it was going to happen to him. Sounds like the crew of the CSX train was responsible and left without lining the switch back for the main. If the signals were not under maintenance and were operational at the time and the previous crew (or whoever forgot to reline the switch) had lined the switch back to the main, the whole thing could have been avoided. Prime example of a series of unrelated incidents leading to a catastrophic event. Think I’ll stay off Amtrak trains permanently, just to many serious accidents over the past 15 years.
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Eric Schade said:
Amtrak is having some issues these days it would seem.
While having issues is being talked about, CSX have been having some issues for some time,
7/28/2017
STB concerned about ‘deteriorated service’ at CSX"The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has expressed concern to CSX about “deteriorated service” as a result of the company’s recent restructuring under new President and Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison.
In a letter sent to Harrison yesterday, the board said it has heard from CSX customers and industry stakeholders concerned about “increased transit times, unreliable switching operations, inefficient car routings, poor communications and coordination with CSX customer service, and acute disruption to customers’ business operations,” STB officials said in a press release.
Wonder how a dead man is going to answer to the a letter from the STB. He died over a month ago.
As info for all. A CSX local had been switching in the area. They put there train into the clear for approaching Amtrak. Trainman close and locked derail but did not line switch back and locked in deversion route. Train was operating on train orders and traveling at 50mph below track speed. CSX was in the process of upgrading signal system there for system was shut down. Amtrak struck a freight train waiting on the siding and that crew bailed off before impact. Most likly be as dark as it was and in a curve hard to determine if a switch is lined correctly and if he did see it, It still would have been to late. Later RJD