From "TrainOrders"

The 2nd from the last car derailed near mp 147 at about 6:30am. The rear two cars were cut off at the site and the rest of the train continued into Chicago with about a 90 minute delay. The car that derailed was one of the Pullman service cars.

SixAxleAlco

Say what?

Not being a frequenter of "TrainOrders" what are you talking about.

General tip: In news items such as this, the what, where and when might be helpful. We can leave the who and why for later. Or could I suggest that you ask your question on "TrainOrders" since that seems to be the source of the news in the first place and leave this tid-bit for that forum?

Thanks!

I've just done some looking around, and can't find much of anything. All I could find were references to earlier incidents. If we're lucky--and I hope we are--this may just be a case of dropping a set of wheels on the ground and sending the train on to minimize delays. That wouldn't be much of a news story, so maybe that's all it is.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Posted to the Illinois Central Yahoo Group / List. Unverified.

"That derailment was a broken axle on private car Baton Rouge on 58. Happened
between the diamond and North Tuscola, and tore up the North Tuscola switch.
Only the broken axle went on the ground, and there were no injuries; just a few
rude awakenings."

I hope this incident does not "derail" this wonderful new operation.

Steve

Jim:

I cut and pasted that from http://www.TrainOrders.com and was trying to see if anyone who frequents RYPN had heard anything about this derailment.

Thanks for the "General Tip" but there was no more information to be found, and in retrospect something did happen. By the way, do you moderate this forum ?

SAA

It is a highly relevant item for discussion here if, as reported, it was the failure of a critical component of a vintage rail car.

I know 40+ year old cars have to get a major truck teardown, inspection, and rebuild. How are axles handled? How do they get inspected? Is there a maximum age? Are they subject to fatigue cracking or, barring any specific damage, are they good indefinitely and the failure rate of old axles is no worse than new ones?

Yes, I know, this subject is all based on one scanty report but without assigning cause for this incident, we can still discuss the questions I have raised as a matter of what I would presume would be general interest.

Steve

I think it would be very interesting to know what failed and how, and how to prevent it....once we actually know what failed, and how, and how to prevent it. Speculation is not productive.

dave

I am not asking for speculative discussion of this incident. I have asked some questions about axles as they pertain to older passenger equipment inspected and approved for Amtrak operation. That the questions are inspired by speculation is beside the point; I think they are still good questions.

Steve

I do know that axles on which brake rigging is rubbing can break at that point. The small groove that is worn into an axle can create enough localized stress to initiate a fracture.

As of 12 Noon Sunday the truck is still being reassembled at the Washington St Tuscola crossing on the connecting track between the CN and CSX. They hope to have the truck under the coach Monday AM when the Cranmasters return with the heavy lift crane. UP and CN were still looking at the Tuscola diamond for damage. The axle sheared nearly at mid point, but from the photos I took on site show that there was the start of a crack a some time ago as it has rust to about 30% point on the diameter and the remaining is a fresh failure.

Fred Heilich

The Pullman car with the damaged truck was the Iowa Pacific's Baton Rouge. It was the trailing wheelset of the lead truck. The lounge car behind it is the Pontchartrain Club. The cars were on the northbound City of New Orleans on the 17th. The damaged wheelset was placed on a CN shop dollie from Champaign and the two cars moved from the site north of Tuscola to the CN/CSX interchange track at Washington St, Tuscola. The crew had the truck out from the car by 3 PM 17 Nov and were starting to rebuild the truck with a replacement wheelset that was brought in. New grade 8 hardware bolts were found at the Tuscola Home Center. There were crews from Iowa Pacific, CN, CSX, UP, Cranemaster, and Amtrak involved with different phases of car repair and track inspection for damage. They are doing a great job. There are a few viewers from town and several railfans.

The truck is basically re-assembled and will be rolled in place Monday morning when the crane returns. Hopefully the cars will be on their way back to Chicago later this week.

Fred Heilich

The repaired truck has been reinstalled on the Baton Rouge and a single car brake test has been successfully completed. The cars will be on their way out of Tuscola soon.

Fred Heilich

Actually, there was more info to be found. Read your post from the perspective of somebody who has no idea of what you're talking about.

"Amtrak Derailment" OK, so it happened in the US...

"The 2nd from the last car derailed" nothing in that statement indicates it's a PV.

"near mp 147" Could be a lot of places on a lot of railroads...

"the rest of the train continued into Chicago" Ok, that narrows it down a bit, but Amtrak runs a lot of trains into the Windy city.

You did know additional details that would have been helpful. What train this was, the fact it was a PV (which explains why you posted it here) and the location of a derailment for those of us who don't know where MP 147 on some un-named railroad is. That info was obvious to you, but for somebody happening upon this story out of the blue, they're a mystery.

This brings up a matter that gets discussed on Trainorders.com (to which I'm a subscriber): How much geographical info should we include? I try to make my entries reasonably clear, even to someone in another part of the country. For example, if I post photos of ex-ATSF "Warbonnet" GP60M's on the "San Jack", I explain that this is the ex Santa Fe San Jacinto Branch, about ten miles southeast of Riverside in Southern Calif. I may also mention that I was en route to Orange Empire Ry. Museum (oerm.org).