I'm not sure where the $800 million number came from but the line actually cost somewhere between $149 million and $182 million to rehab, depending on what you count as the bypass or the original Sounder operation on the north end. $800M is a phenomenal number (in the US anyway), that is almost what Illinois has spent on raising speeds to 110 between Chicago and St Louis.

https://www.soundtransit.org/Projects-a ... nce-bypass

Even if "just along for the ride", that P42 would have had a lot of inertia, even sliding along in an emergency brake application. At the reported 80 MPH, it's weight would have helped shove some of those lightweight cars off to the side.

There was an update on the local news (KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA) that in addition to the engineer the cab also contained "an engineer in-training".

I bet he got a lot of education in one day.....

One thing I can't understand about this derailment yet is the amount of damage to the lead unit's roof, which is nearly all peeled off, yet the locomotive is still right side up and on it's trucks. Did it roll onto it's side then upside down, then right itself? There is minimal damage on the left side, which would happen if it did a complete barrel roll. Either these units have a very low center of gravity and it righted itself, or it hit some mighty stout tree limbs. With the second car right behind it in the wreckage, I don't think the locomotive rolled over that far.

Nick

There are trees on the right side of the track, if the engine was leaning or in flight branches could rake the roof.

More than likely the engine rattled on the trees, look at the overhead image you can see white on the trees. Maybe paint or ripped bark.

It appears that the Charger took out a bunch of trees and limbs so it's possible it could've had parts of the roof peeled off by large limbs. In the available footage, you can see quite a few guys with chainsaws cutting up the debris for access. Part of a roof panel is back in the trees.

They will need speed test data for this section, they upgraded the track to handle higher speeds.

I just still find it very hard to believe a locomotive traveling at 80 MPH, derailed, went downhill and stopped upright in that short of a distance. It seems to be barely one train length of distance. I would think if it derailed at 30 MPH it would go that far.

reading on another forum, why would they have a 30 mph spot for a high speed rail line?

The track is on a long downgrade to the curve. It still bugs me about an object on the track and the deleted post. Where the engine derails is critical, the track should have obvious marks, the track must be more solid as it did not tear apart and the rear engine rolled forward fine.

Did that locomotive have an inward facing camera?

just heard report direct video from one of the investigators, there were inward and outward facing cameras, apparently damaged in the crash, being sent for extraction.

Passenger speed of 79 is not "a high speed rail line."

The Northeast Corridor has a couple painful slow spots, too--such as the tunnels in Baltimore.

Couple of notes: my Danish colleagues are completely perplexed at how modern Talgo trains could be in service in non-train control territory.

Some definitions:

ATS - Automatic Train Stop. This is not ATC. It means brake activation at red signals.

ATC - Automatic Train Control. This means speed supervision, usually limited to places that balises or communications devices are installed at fixed positions.

ERTMS - European Rail Traffic Management System, has 3 levels. Level 1 is discrete with communications essentially the same as today based on track hardware. Level 2 is radio or wireless and discards most track communications hardware and discards visual signals at trackside. Level 3 discards fixed track segments and implements moving block. Level 3 is theoretical and there are no current forecast installations.

ETCS- European Train Control System - the technical component of the signals in ERTMS

Does anybody know what the alignment of the track was before I-5 was built?