SD70Dude At least I haven't heard autoracks referred to as "FEMA boxcars" for a while......
At least I haven't heard autoracks referred to as "FEMA boxcars" for a while......
Amtrak cancels more trains for derailments than the private carriers ever did when they were operating their own passenger services.
The primary cause for my statement is two fold. When the carriers were operating their own passenger service, there were multiple carriers/trains servicing the same origin/destination pairs over the different routings each carrier operated. Over the years the number of Class 1 carriers is now down to six, from over 100 prior to Amtrak. The remaining six carriers have reduced the track segments they operate, in doing it, they have eliminated any number of track segements that were used as Detour routings in the days of private carrier passenger service - and thus trains could continue to operate around serious line distruptions such as derailments. Today's Class 1's rarely even operate detour movements with their own freight trains when they have a serious line blockage. Thus, today, we have a lack of carriers and a lack of parallel track segments upon which detour movements are able to operate.
Amtrak is even more resistant to detouring than are the Class 1 carriers. Amtrak doesn't have sufficient equipment to ORIGINATE all their scheduled trains when their currently operating trains are seriously off schedule. In the days of privately operated passenger service, there normally was sufficient extra equipment and manpower available to originate scheduled trains On Time even when the currently operating train that would protect the schedule if not late, is in fact very late. No one can operate a On Time system if they can't at least START their trains On Time.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
blue streak 1 BNSF derailed freight that is blocking EB. Notice train has empty lumber haulers involve. They seem to be involved in too many derails? Trooper Hilzendeger-Minot on Twitter: "Update on train derailment: County Road 10 is still closed (between Burlington and Des Lacs) to allow room for first responders and work equipment to manage the incident. Please avoid the area until further notice. https://t.co/izL0coiNZ4" / Twitter
BNSF derailed freight that is blocking EB. Notice train has empty lumber haulers involve. They seem to be involved in too many derails?
Trooper Hilzendeger-Minot on Twitter: "Update on train derailment: County Road 10 is still closed (between Burlington and Des Lacs) to allow room for first responders and work equipment to manage the incident. Please avoid the area until further notice. https://t.co/izL0coiNZ4" / Twitter
This derailment involved a Z train with nothing but COFC and maybe some TOFC. And while the cause is officially under investigation, I don't think that any one type of rail car is more likely than another to cause an embankment to disappear from underneath the tracks. See https://www.kfyrtv.com/2022/05/02/site-train-derailment-west-minot-reopens-train-traffic-cleanup-continues/ for a photo.
Dan
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
The newsworkers keep reporting them as "boxcars"
(The container of tater-tots somehow being classed as hazmat is still amusing)
Empty bulkhead flats are not a problem; where they are in the consist can be.
I don't see any centerbeams in that photo. Just upside-down intermodal well cars.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
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