Derailment and Fire at the Tehachapi Loop, California

Well, I am guessing a lot of westbound BNSF traffic will be holding in Barstow and points east for a few days. A lot of the bay area intermodal will probably be heading north.

Looks like the fire was burning at the West entrance to the tunnel, but who knows how far in the bore the car or cars were.

The above link doesn't seem to work (as of this posting time), but the below one does work (as of this posting time).

http://www.tehachapinews.com/content/breaking-news-update-evacuations-still-effect

Use the website's arrow keys to see all the photos.

I am not speculating on the damage as it probably will be days before the situation is analyzed. The long duration heat will certainly damage the concrete depending on the concrete original mix. 

1. Is the tunnel concrete lined throoughout.?.

2. On the off chance there is a long repair time is there any alignment available to build a shoe-fly around the tunnel? Was there ever another ROW around it for the original route construction?. Of course if shoefly build  that will require a temporary helper district to move traffic up and down the resulting steep slope.

 The last photo of the 8 on the Tehachapi News' webpage is the same one at the bottom of the fire company's webpage on this incident -

 http://www.kerncountyfire.org/incidents.php?id=328 

- and - to me, anyway - is the most informative.  The several cars leading up to the tunnel all appear to still be up on the rails - not 'accordioned' all over the landscape, or plugging the tunnel portal, as sometimes happens.  Now, without knowing which direction the train was moving, I can't say whether that limited damage is the same or worse at the other portal.  But this would appear to indicate that the damage may be limited to right at the tunnel portal.  It will be interesting to see what the cause was - I'm suspecting maybe a hotbox or a broken wheel and a partial derailment that caused the tank car to scrape the side of the tunnel wall and leak and catch fire, etc.  Of course, this is just speculation on my part - I could be wrong on part or all of this . . .

Also - How long is that tunnel ?  I believe it is only as couple hundred yards long, and not terribly deep below the overburden above.  This may be an opportunity to not only double-track it as Carl suggests - but to 'daylight' it and remove it entirely, and replace it with just a bridge / glorified culvert or a much shorter tunnel.  Such things have happened before during one of the earthquakes in the 1950's, if I recall correctly.  In view of the resources of both railroads - though only the UP owns the line, I know - the tremendous increases in the capabilities of earthmoving equipment, the slow economy and contractors 'hungry' and available for work, and decreased traffic levels on railroads generally, this may be the 'silver lining' opportunity to accomplish that at an unexpected time, in the cloud of this derailment and fire.

- Paul North.

Paul North (2-21):

You may have something there, Paul. The WALONG siding that starts just on the other side of the tunnel is only 4800-feet long, and is a monkey wrench in operations. Being able to extend it may be a fire blessing!

However, not to terribly long ago on Cajon Pass, a tanker crashed right under I-215's Devore Rd. overpass and burned fiercely for a few hours. That concrete overpass is still standing today, though the black burn markings sort of remain. So, on the Tehachapi fire, the concrete tunnel lining may withstand the heat. Time will tell.

K.P.

I imagine that the thing will be rebuilt.  There is no other grade or alignment that can be used, at least not without considerable expense.  I doubt you will see a siding extension at Walong.  Focus now is probably to get trains rolling across the pass again.  It would be likely that trains will be rerouted via the Coast and Sunset routes, Donner and Feather River Canyon.   Accidents and line closures on Tehachapi are not anything new, and I can remembers seeing ATSF trains in San Jose, CA during one such event.  It will not suprise me if someone sees BNSF trains in the same location during this event.

    Simplistic view, I know, but in a tunnel fire like this, couldn't you just block the ends of the tunnel, and starve the oxygen to the fire?

If you look at this video I shot in 2002 of the loop as soon as the train exits the tunnel on the side facing the camera it becomes double track. There are many other tunnels at the loop besides this one  that would also have to be double tracked so I doubt that will occur due to the cost that the UPRR would incur. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSMlKzSegOc

CShaveRR

Norris, that might work if the fire were contained within the tunnel and there weren't burning cars hanging out of both ends. The fire is reportedly out now, and I understand repair crews are ready to move in if and when they can.

Murphy Siding

   Simplistic view, I know, but in a tunnel fire like this, couldn't you just block the ends of the tunnel, and starve the oxygen to the fire?

I've always wondered about this in abandoned coal mine fires....Entrances closed, and still they seem to burn for years once a fire has started.  I'm especially thinking of an instance in Pennsylania some years ago.

CShaveRR

Norris, that might work if the fire were contained within the tunnel and there weren't burning cars hanging out of both ends. The fire is reportedly out now, and I understand repair crews are ready to move in if and when they can.

Modelcar

  I've always wondered about this in abandoned coal mine fires....Entrances closed, and still they seem to burn for years once a fire has started.  I'm especially thinking of an instance in Pennsylania some years ago.  

Funny you mention that, Quentin.  Just a week or so ago there was an article in out local paper about how Pennsylvania is aggressively moving out the last dozen or so remaining residents of Centralia, where such a fire under the town from the 1950's or 1960's made it mostly uninhabitable by the 1970's and 1980's.  The reason is that the carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion - resulting from the lack of air, of course - would seep into houses and sicken or kill the residents, esp. while they were sleeping.  It's still burning, and is projected to do so for a few hundred more years or so - hence the forced relocations.  It burns slowly - more of an anaerobic = without oxygen combustion, much like 'coke' - the fuel source, not the popular carbonated beverage - is made.  There used to be many of those underground mine fires in the Scranton, PA area, but an aggressive Pennsylvania mining reclamation program in the 1960's of digging them up and drowning/ flushing them with vast quantities of water from water cannons, etc. put an end to those.

- Paul North. 

The attraction of getting a 2nd track through the tunnel site is that it would greatly facilitate connecting the 2 existing Walong and Woodford sidings to make a much longer siding or short stretch of double track.  If you can find an aerial view or map of this vicinity 'on-line', that would surely help to understand the suggestion.

Whether that siding extension/ connection would be actually useful - and then whether it would be sufficiently economically worthwhile - to the Operating Depts. of either or both owner UP and trackage-rights tenant BNSF, is another question.  However, from general knowledge it might well be, and would certainly be worth a quick look.

This tunnel is only about 420 ft. long, and I estimate that the cover over it is only in the 30 to 40 ft. range, max.

blue streak 1 and spbed and CshaveRR all mention the existing Walong siding, which is stated to be only about 4,800 ft. long, and ends at the eastern portal of this tunnel.  Beyond the tunnel going west, it's about 7,000 ft. = 1.3 miles along the track to the start of the Woodford siding.  There's lots of curves and maybe a bridge or two - but no tunnels in that distance. 

Going the other way, from the eastern end of the Walong siding, it's only about 800 ft. on a sharp curve to another short - 300 ft. or so - tunnel, then a winding single track on a 'sidehill' configuration for some distance to the next siding.

Almost anything is possible - and even if so, some of those things are not economically feasible - but I'd be asking those questions real quick and hard right now.  Maybe this isn't quite yet the time to actually do it - permits, budget approvals, reimbursement from BNSF if the derailment was its fault or responsibility, etc.  But, rather than repair the tunnel lining and thereby just perpetuate that bottleneck and maintenance headache, and operational liability/ contingency for when - not if - the next major earthquake occurs in that vicinity, I'd just go ahead now and 'daylight' at least the portions of it right up to the roadbed for the upper track, if at all possible. 

- Paul North.

Paul_D_North_Jr

Whether that siding extension/ connection would be actually useful - and then whether it would be sufficiently economically worthwhile - to the Operating Depts. of either or both owner UP and trackage-rights tenant BNSF, is another question.  However, from general knowledge it might well be, and would certainly be worth a quick look.

UP (pushed by the BNSF?) has long term plans to double track much of the Tehachapi grade that were to begin in another year or 2.  T9 was to be double tracked, but I don't think it was in the first phase.  I think it was T7 & 8, T10 and T14 to 17 that would remain single track. 
I have seen semi official reports that T9 would be tonight or tomorrow, so no massive rebuild, at least not this week.

Phil

That is super good news as I was planning a trip to S. California in mid April & had planned on going to Caliiente & Bakersfield at least  

CShaveRR

Trains are moving again, as of sometime late last night. What a day this would be to go trackside in Tehachapi (the city--stay away from the Loop for a while!) and watch the rush of trains! Reportedly only the UP detoured traffic; BNSF held its traffic.

CShaveRR

Trains are moving again, as of sometime late last night. What a day this would be to go trackside in Tehachapi (the city--stay away from the Loop for a while!) and watch the rush of trains! Reportedly only the UP detoured traffic; BNSF held its traffic.

Paul_D_North_Jr

Funny you mention that, Quentin.  Just a week or so ago there was an article in out local paper about how Pennsylvania is aggressively moving out the last dozen or so remaining residents of Centralia,

Yes, Paul....that's the area I was referencing.  The name {Centralia}, had escaped me when I wrote that....