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"Sparky" Derails
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<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the photos, it appears as though the wreck began with the derailment of the lead truck of the locomotive somewhat prior to reaching the guardrails of the trestle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That serious track kink visible in the photos may have caused the derailment, or it may have merely resulted from the derailment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">The kinks that I noticed in the video posted above by <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Tree68</span> are in the second curve after crossing this first trestle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the train runs around that curve, you can see the effects of those kinks as they cause the locomotive to skew to the right, and then suddenly swerve back hard to the left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Guardrails have two purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is to guide derailed wheels across a bridge so they don’t run off the side and drop from the track structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other is to intercept substantially misaligned wheels that have derailed at some point prior to the bridge and guide them back into better alignment with the track before they enter the bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are differing schools of thought on how this second purpose is to be achieved, and how it is affected by the guardrail set configuration at its ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a topic of its own, and maybe someone with knowledge of it can comment. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the photos, it appears as though the configuration of the ends of the guardrail set worked against their purpose rather than for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The configuration lacks the point of the converging guardrails that would provide the widest potential to improve the alignment of a derailed wheelset or entire truck as it approaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point also offers the least resistance to being snagged by a derailed wheelset or truck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, the guardrails are only bent inward slightly with their ends cut square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, if an approaching derailed wheelset were drifting off to the right of the curve, its left wheel might move beyond the point where the left guardrail could recover it and keep it near the left stock rail as it ran onto the trestle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the left wheel were too far to the right, the left guardrail may have guided it to the right instead of the left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or the left wheel may have simply struck the left guardrail head-on, thus causing the truck to be torn from under the locomotive as the locomotive continued to the right and went over the edge of the trestle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">In any case, the guardrail apparently failed to perform its intended function.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, having such a sharp curve entering the trestle would seem capable of defeating the purpose of a guardrail no matter how its ends were configured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">I would speculate that the locomotive trucks were attached by a solid connection to the locomotive frame, and would not normally separate in a derailment, as might be the case with standard gage locomotives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, the photos suggest that the trucks were torn out from under the locomotive by the violent collision with the blunt ends of the guardrail set.</span></span></span></p>
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