Let's say a minor derailment is (IMO) something like a wheel coming off the track at low speeds, it may mess up the ties but likely the offending car can be rerailed with no real damage of note.So cosndiering non-minor derailments, what determinations do the railroad or car owner (if private) make on whether to salvage/rebuild or scrap the affected rolling stock, and also what accomodations do recovery crews take to, well, not make matters worse (for example, torching a gondola into pierces to drag it off the track is fairly drastic).I think there are levels of severity, such as cars 'just' falling on their sides (e.g, this CSX derailment in North Baltimore in late Novemember - at least two box, 3 center-beams, a tank (probably more, it said 21 detailed) on their sides) vs a rolling stock pile up where cars end up over/under each other, or perhaps wedged against abutments and so. Also, the speed at which the route needs to be clear likely plays a part in determining what can be done for salvaging. I am sure there are other factors (for instances, the loads the cars may be carrying), and I'd like to hear about them as well.
Can tank-cars that are designed to carry hazardous materials be reused if they derail on their side (or flip over entirely), but when righted turn out to be OK? Heck, same with gondolas, boxes, bulk-head, cofc, hoppers, and so on - any general rules of thumb out there for salvageability? Grab-irons, stirrup steps, brake rigging, and so on can be replaced, but what about the undertrame (or the tank itself for tank cars I guess) - how badly could it be damanged before its judged a total write-off for scrap?
This is probably a question too complicated for an easy answer, and this is one the professionals among us will have to sound off on, but if I was to guess I'd say "Salvage or scrap?" probably comes down to a phrase we're all familiar with, especially if you've ever owned a car, "Beyond economical repair."
A true-life example of the same in our case. When the transmission on the wifes Saturn began to fail repairing the transmission would have cost more than the cars "Blue Book" value. And with the car approaching the ten year mark in age? OK, it was new car time.
In that same vein - I had a Jeep Cherokee at 300K miles in need of a major engine rebuild that would be several thousands to get done or install a 'unknown' junk yard engine or purchase a 'crate' engine - but before I could make that decision as if I made that decision the 'new' engine would get mated to a transmission that had 300K miles as well as a 300K mile transfer case and a pair of 300K mile differentials, all of which were also 13 years old. My decision was that it was beyond 'economical, reliable' repair. And I replaced the vehicle.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I would opine that there's a lot of "it depends" involved.
A derailment such as that in KC(?) not long ago involved a couple of auto racks that stayed upright and were craned off the elevated track. Odds are they are back in service after the trucks were replaced.
Those incidents where the cars are stacked up like pick-up sticks probably lead to scrapping. This might be especially true of tank cars where internal damage might be hard to detect.
IMHO.
I go to a lot of traffic incidents that involve vehicles that will likely be totalled.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68I go to a lot of traffic incidents that involve vehicles that will likely be totalled.
Considering the electronics and sensors that get damaged in vehicle accidents as well as air bags being deployed and in need of replacement - I would expect that most any vehicle accident these days has the cost to repair (labor & materials) will generally exceed the Blue Book value of the vehicle (with the Blue Book value being what insurance estimators generally use as the value of a vehicle) and thus most every vehicle in a accident gets 'totaled'.
Each derailment is different. The most important in a derailment is the condition of the underframe (spine) of the freight or passenger car. I have seen a BNSF derailment when about 10 or so new jumbo covered hoppers that had not had a revenue move had to be scrapped because the underframes were twisted.
Ed Burns
I would guess "economical repair" probably reflects the demand for the car type as well - if you're TTX and you have eleventy gazillion centerbeam flats stuffed into sidings and shortline across the country, it won't take much to tilt the decision to "scrap". We drove from Ohio to Reno, up to Portland OR, and back to Ohio in October - UP had centerbeams parked all over the place, especially on the old Rio Grande in CO and UT.
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