UP Collision Saturday in New Mex leaves 2 dead

[Anonymous]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/02/21/train.collision.ap/index.html

Looks like this is 128 miles North of El Paso Tx on the old SP route from El Paso to Kansas City.

Shame for the rr employees and their families. I wonder if fatigue was a problem?

[Anonymous]

I saw that this morning. I've seen pictures of many wrecks and this is on of the worst.

[Anonymous]

UP continues to be a poorly managed railroad having many problems. [V]

Not as poorly managed as CSX but still lacking good management. Their management team just doesn't seem to care anymore. Greed has overshadowed the UP operations. Poor planning is being shown once again in their operations. UP does not enjoy the "good name" they once had.


My sympathy to the families and to the friends of the workers killed in this accident. I am always saddened by news of a death.

[FThunder11]

I was driving to Denver Colo. From colorado Sprgs, and i saw about 10 trains that were just sitting there on the track. Was this the cause??

[Anonymous]

Here is another photo of the wreck. It would seem like the locomotive at lower right might be the lead unit. You can hardly recognize that it is a locomotive with the cab so badly damaged.

http://www.abqjournal.com/
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040222-84453.shtml

Not a great day in railroading [:(]

[Anonymous]

The trains you saw standing between Denver and Colorado Springs probably are standing from a cause completely unrelated to this wreck. These are two different lanes with practically no overlap -- Denver-Colorado Springs is a Powder River Basin and Pacific Northwest to Texas lane, whereas the Golden State Route, which passes through Carrizozo, is a Chicago-Kansas City-Los Angeles lane.

[David3]

Sorry to hear about this, my sympaties go out to their families. [:(]
Dave

[Noah Hofrichter]

Last I heard, they thought the signals might have malfunctioned, and thats why the train didn't stop, but it hasn't been confirmed yet

Noah

[cherokee woman]

My sympathies to all the families and friends of the victims. It is always a tragedy whenever anyone is killed. May God bless them and may God bless their families and friends through this difficult time.

[favuprailroadfan]

This is one thing I can't understand, I live along the Golden in SW KS. They have dumped 400 million into this line and yet they are still to cheap to install CTC, but I know that part of the line is CTC, but from Strattford TX, to Herington KS, it is still TWC with ABS, but the sidings are dispatcher controlled. It is really making me very angry with this. They may see it as a line that is not in need if CTC, but the traffic is pretty much the same as it there as it is here. They are running that 75 mph BULLET through here on a non CTC line. I think this is a crock of ****. They just need to break down and do something about this, before any more senseless accidents happen. Railroaders are important people and if UP cared they would do something. Because if they don't, this will continue. Sorry, I usually don't vent like this on the Union Pacific, hense my id name, but I am getting tired of people getting injured or killed for no reason.

Laters, Dru A. Schott.

P.S. If anybody agrees with me on this, please let me know, I am open to listen to anybody's opinion.

[Anonymous]

I saw it last night on the news my sorrowness goes to their families

[JoeKoh]

My sympathies to the families.
stay safe
joe

[favuprailroadfan]

My sympathies go out to the families who have lost railroaders while on duty. May God be them on the tough journey they are about to encounter.

Dru

[Rick Gates]

When I heard of this on the news, it was described as a side-swipe. It sure doesn't look like one from the photos I've seen. Favuprailroadfan writes of TWC with ABS system mingled with upgrade to CTC system. Is this along the Line where the wreck occurred? I believe, from personal experience, that this may cause conflicts in the signal system while these things are being installed and tested. It usually cannot be proved decisively. Just something I wonder about. May we all pray for our brothers and their families and loved ones.

[Anonymous]

The location of this collision is pure CTC, and has been for several years.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be 2 plausible ways that this could have happened (at least as far as my pea-brain can figure out) and unfortunately both would have seemed to have been caused by crew error. This looks like a pretty basic single siding, opposing train meet.

If you assume that the grain train is the inferior train and is taking the siding, than did the auto rack train fail to stop short of the east switch and hit the side of the grain train as it was entering the siding?

Or, if you reverse it and assume that the grain train was holding the main, then the auto rack train would have had to have gone into the siding, ran the length of the siding and then hit the side of the grain train as the auto train exceeded their signal and was coming back out of the siding. This seems less likely because if the crew had fallen asleep, their speed would have perhaps caused them to derail on the switch going into the siding.

It just raises questions of crew fatigue being a cause. ... or there's always the potential of a failed signal. We'll have to wait to see.

[dehusman]

Beleive it or not you can't materialize a CTC signal system overnight. The UP has been spending millions of dollars installing signals across the Golden State. The railroads that owned the line for the 100+ years before the UP had not installed CTC, but the UP started putting in CTC within a couple years of acquiring the line.

The area where the collision occurred was CTC and has been CTC for a while.

Dave H.

[rrnut282]

It's not a happy day for anybody, especially the families involved, and I will remember them in my prayers.

[PNWRMNM]

It looks to me like the dead men missed the signals. You can not exceed your authority, which is what they did. UP has had two similar collisions on the BNSF near Longview Jct in past few years. Both were missed signals.

[wabash1]

most all major acidents that i have seen and heard of happens on ctc territory i have yet to see any bad accidents in abs /twc territory. we have ctc and abs in the area i run and most being abs nothing has happened here. Abs is a very good system.

[zardoz]

If fatigue was the cause, were there no crew alerters on these units?

Perhaps a better system would be either ATS or ATC in addition to CTC. Don't recall any major collisions on the old CNW West Line to Clinton, or the North Line to Milwaukee, or the Northwest Lines to Madison.

[favuprailroadfan]

Yes, I do know that this area is purely CTC. But up here in SW KS, along the Pratt Sub. We are being put out to pasture with the CTC. Yes, I have no complaints about the TWC ABS set up. It works fine, but all UP needs to do is finish wiring from siding to siding which only about 8 miles and it would be complete. Think about this, if this had been the bullet train, just imagine what kind of publicity this would have created. I agre that it has been CTC from Tucumcari to El Paso for years. But since UP took over, they have yet to install the CTC in this area. This is the only reason I am talking about this, because I don't want another one of these accidents to happen to people I know on this line. I have many friends that work for the railroad through here and I have grown up to know them very well. UP needs to something. I just hope they do it soon. The Bullet runs 75 mph through here and if one of them gets involved in a tragic accident like the one that happened in Carrizozo, especially in between Heringrton KS and Stratford TX. Questions will be raised, and once again I'm sure I will have a bad opinion on this, but as my name says, LONG LIVE UP.

Laters, Dru Schott