N&W 611: The Great Dismal Swamp Derailment (1986)

[chatanuga]

Stumbled upon this over the weekend.

watch?v=p7oFsP6ODmw

And the accident report.

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/1987/R87_32.pdf

Kevin

[Cwex]

I have seen this before, what a mess to say the least. I remember that Mr. Claytor was pretty shook up by the event as you could imagine. And after this ALL cars used had tight lock couplers and the 40mph speed limit was imposed.

[BaltACD]

Cwex

I have seen this before, what a mess to say the least. I remember that Mr. Claytor was pretty shook up by the event as you could imagine. And after this ALL cars used had tight lock couplers and the 40mph speed limit was imposed.

Which does nothing to FIX the problems of track movement under high & fluctuating temperatures.

Welded rail, while it has solved a myriad of maintenance problems is still not a totally perfected technology with the wide temperature ranges it must perform faultlessly in.  From below Zero F to over 100 F in many areas of the country.