Last week on Monday, March 21, 2022, a derailment occurred at Colton, Calif. (by the Sunset Route bridging over the BNSF southern Transcon) that was widely reported on by the press and also the TRAINS Newswire.
What was NOT reported is that a switch derailed the train, a derail type switch. From aerials, it appears the train was on the southernmost track that crosses the BNSF Transcon with OWLS at the slightly angled diamonds. Apparently the train WITHOUT AIR was lost control of on the downhill grade and passed the red signal and went through the open derail and piled up.
Such type operations at / near the location are typical, and have been as such for years, ever sense the Colton Flyover was built 2011-13. Exactly why the train could not stop at the red signal is not clear, but it suggests that the yard movement was too long and / or too heavy to control without brakes. (Classification yard ‘flat,’ ‘gradeless’ movement typically don’t have air hoses connected, hence, have no active brake line, only the power’s brakes are functional.)
Press photos show the Colton Flyover piers (plural) were struck, which could have been disastrous if the Sunset Route parallel bridging had collapsed!
This contributor has long felt that such type of derailment and pier strikes was just an accident waiting to happen. A semi-solution would be to simply move the unpowered crossover between the BNSF Connector and the switching track further west only two or three hundred feet, as well as the BNSF signal and derail too. That way any future derailment would pile up away from the Colton Flyover bridge piers.
Derails work! Who knew.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Derails work! Who knew.
Or you could just switch with air on the cars.......
CN had a similar runaway in Toronto in 2016:
http://tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2016/r16t0111/r16t0111.html
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70DudeOr you could just switch with air on the cars.......
Now where's the fun in that?
The blind leading the blind. I had expected better training and not what is disclosed in this report. A real formula for disasters.
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