Big mess on I-57... July 12 News Wire

[Bergie]

Today's TRAINS News Wire includes a photo of the UP/CN coal train derailment off an overpass and onto I-57 in Illinois. Luckily, no one was killed.

Click here to read today's News Wire.

Bergie

[eolafan]

Lucky is right, this is an extrememly busy piece of highway.

[Anonymous]

It's like a wise man once said..Things happen in threes...Here in alexandria,la. there was derailment involving train LIFW and it derailed right near downtown Alexandria. Two engines and I say about nine or ten cars derailed,but there was no tieups on the mainline. Just a lot of damn headaches for dispatchers in Omaha.Then there was the derailment of the CITY OF NEW ORLEANS in Mississippi. Now along comes the I57 derailment. Boys...something has got to be done about the condition of the rails.Its gonna take one major derailment where a crew gets injured or even worsed killed.

[Kozzie]

Thanks Bergie for the picture.

What a relief that someone wasn't hurt bad or killed!

With the coal cars stacked up like that, maybe it was going at a fair speed?

[mudchicken]

30-45 mph probably....CN/IC like most other North American railroads restrict the speeds on coal trains to 45 MPH or less for loads. LC, CSX or some of the others can tell you how much fun (tons and tons worth) it is to keep that momentum under control.

[Anonymous]

Good luck for a change...

LC

[Kozzie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

30-45 mph probably....CN/IC like most other North American railroads restrict the speeds on coal trains to 45 MPH or less for loads. LC, CSX or some of the others can tell you how much fun (tons and tons worth) it is to keep that momentum under control.

Ahhh mudchicken! [:)] That's it! [;)] Momentum is a powerful force. [:0] Being fully loaded, the momentum can cause such spectacular stacks withou needing to go at high sped. Mind you, with all that coal, [:0] 45 mph is fast enough....[:0]

Dave

[Train Guy 3]

One second you see the train on the overpass.. the next second the train is on your hood.

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

30-45 mph probably....CN/IC like most other North American railroads restrict the speeds on coal trains to 45 MPH or less for loads. LC, CSX or some of the others can tell you how much fun (tons and tons worth) it is to keep that momentum under control.

An article I read this morning suggested that the speed on that particular line was 25 m.p.h. It doesn't sound fast, but that speed was definitely capable of producing a wreck like that.

I wonder if the wreck-damage potential increases proportionally to the square of the speed increase (we were taught that maxim about coupling speeds). If so, the disaster would have been twice as bad at 35 m.p.h, four times as bad at 50 (UP's own speed limit for coal trains).

The article I read said that the track is open now, but trains are moving at 10 m.p.h. across the bridge until all repairs are completed.
http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=15217

For what it's worth, I suspect a track defect. Don't know if the cause has been determined, though. Just a gut feeling I have...same one I had when the City of New Orleans derailed a while back, strengthened by the mud-holes I saw along IC's main line parallel to I-57 a couple of days ago.

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Kozzie

Thanks Bergie for the picture.

What a relief that someone wasn't hurt bad or killed!

With the coal cars stacked up like that, maybe it was going at a fair speed?

I would assume they were using a DPU on the end of the train, and when the cars derailed, the locomotive in the rear kept shoving for a while.

[UPTRAIN]

I see that bridge often and I posted a thread minutes after it happened.

[UPTRAIN]

And the train was going fairly slowly, maybe 15 when this happened.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't take much speed to do that. The DPU certainly makes sense.

LC

[Noah Hofrichter]

Complete sense. At first I thought with the tucks still in the area of the track that it might have been some sort of a bolser failure or something, but I'm no expert.

Noah

[jeaton]

When UPTRAIN opened this topic, I asked what church the truck driver attended. 1200 cars an hour means 20 cars a minute, and given how traffic can bunch up... More than a few folks may have been wiping their brows.

I have been at that spot countless times. I believe the line was originally built to reach coal mines, and after construction of the Edgwood Cut-off became a means of getting betwee the cut-off to the east and the Carbondale Line to the west. Old Ben Mine 26' (now closed) lead ran north from the bridge on the west side of I-57, so in those days cars would often be on the bridge. Being before the extensive use Wyoming coal, I don't think their was much other traffic accross that line.

That is now a logical route for Wyoming coal going to Barge Terminals located just above the damn that holds back Kentucky Lake. Was wondering how well that track has been maintained or up graded. Kind of rough when I was there in the mid 80's, but with no DP on the 100 car trains, top speeds might have been in the range of 10-15 MPH.

Jay