On a straight track, with trucks in tram and no lateral forces to push the equipment to one side, there's no reason the train should derail. At least no reason a derailment should be inevitable. As mentioned above, placing the explosive on the outside of a curve might help, but not necessarily. Wonder how long that poor little N&W Consol lasted in that kind of service.
I guess the moral of the story is don't be stingy with the explosives, Uncle Sam's got a lot more where that came from. Nothing succeeds like excess, as Oscar Wilde said.
I believe this clip made the rounds of the forum several months ago.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I'm guessing the long wheelbase of the locomotive kept it going straight over the gaps in the rails. Would have been very different with a gap in the outside rail of a curve.
Still impressive how much had to be done to cause the train to derail.
- Erik
Now this is off the hook
watch?v=D 8gV4DJZUw
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