Railway Preservation News :: View topic - Dollywood Express derailed at a switch

So this actually happened a month ago, the train has been closed since. They just released a cause of the accident to the local news (link below).

If you've never been - the Dollywood Train is a 36" gauge railroad with a 3.5% grade - the locomotives are both ex WP&Y mikados and they are hand fired and coal burning.

On each end of the railroad, there is a loop track with a spring switch.

https://www.live5news.com/2023/10/24/dollywood-releases-cause-train-derailment-that-forced-passenger-evacuation/

Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two!

mmi16 wrote:

Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two!

I don't know why you'd say that without knowing what the part is. If it is one of the springs or a large forging it makes fare more sense economically for the railroad to outsource to a specialty shop than attempt to manufacture such an item themselves.

mmi16 wrote:

Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two!

You can't stock a spare for everything, or you would have a whole additional railroad. Speaking of ordering two replacement parts, there is an old saying, "If you need it and don't have it, you will never need it again."

Quote from poster above "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

Easy to say if your not the one paying for it!
Mike Tillger

Author:	Crescent-Zephyr [ Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:	Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
So this actually happened a month ago, the train has been closed since. They just released a cause of the accident to the local news (link below). If you've never been - the Dollywood Train is a 36" gauge railroad with a 3.5% grade - the locomotives are both ex WP&Y mikados and they are hand fired and coal burning. On each end of the railroad, there is a loop track with a spring switch. https://www.live5news.com/2023/10/24/dollywood-releases-cause-train-derailment-that-forced-passenger-evacuation/

Author:	p51 [ Thu Oct 26, 2023 10:23 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Those are spring switches there, it'd be interesting to see what part failed.

Author:	mmi16 [ Thu Oct 26, 2023 8:44 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Crescent-Zephyr wrote: So this actually happened a month ago, the train has been closed since. They just released a cause of the accident to the local news (link below). If you've never been - the Dollywood Train is a 36" gauge railroad with a 3.5% grade - the locomotives are both ex WP&Y mikados and they are hand fired and coal burning. On each end of the railroad, there is a loop track with a spring switch. https://www.live5news.com/2023/10/24/dollywood-releases-cause-train-derailment-that-forced-passenger-evacuation/ Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two!

Author:	Meghan [ Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:38 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
mmi16 wrote: Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two! I don't know why you'd say that without knowing what the part is. If it is one of the springs or a large forging it makes fare more sense economically for the railroad to outsource to a specialty shop than attempt to manufacture such an item themselves.

Author:	BM765 [ Fri Oct 27, 2023 9:12 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
The thing to keep in mind is that in the eyes of the powers that be, this isn't a railroad, it is an amusement park ride. When a ride fails to the point causing injury the repairs are going to be looked at under a microscope and thoroughly tested. In every day railroading putting a truck or two on the ground at slow speed is nearly a non-event. Very different in this setting. Hope they get back up and running soon as it's one of the best park train experiences out there. Genuine WP&Y coal fired mikados on a 5% put on quite a show.

Railway Preservation News https://www.rypn.org/forums/

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Author:	co614 [ Fri Oct 27, 2023 9:44 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
I've ridden it several times and think they do a very credible job and put on a very professionally produced ride. Spring switches are known to be finicky and before we reach any judgments let's see what went wrong. Ross Rowland

Author:	mmi16 [ Sat Oct 28, 2023 12:30 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Meghan wrote: mmi16 wrote: Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two! I don't know why you'd say that without knowing what the part is. If it is one of the springs or a large forging it makes fare more sense economically for the railroad to outsource to a specialty shop than attempt to manufacture such an item themselves. My hobby is club sports car racing. While I may not have all the spares I need at any point in time - if I have something break and I have to order something, I always order two - Just in case. The reality for any undertaking is that you never can have enough spares.

Author:	Bobharbison [ Sun Oct 29, 2023 8:12 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
I'm going to guess that those of you who are shocked at the lead times aren't in the industry. Clearly you haven't purchased any turnouts lately. The last ones I bought had a lead time of 6 to 8 months. Bought them in May, if I'm lucky, they'll be on site in November. These are standard turnouts, nothing special. How about something even simpler than that? Bought some Racor 22E switch stands from A&K. That's about as "vanilla" as it gets. They're used by just about everyone. They used to be in stock. Current lead time 28-30 weeks. Yep, 7 to 8 months for a plain old switch stand. If they can get their parts in a month or two, I may have to call and find out where they buy stuff at!

Author:	Randy Gustafson [ Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:21 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
No idea if the lead times issue is directly related to the recovery for the incident, but yeah, we're seeing three real trends that continue and impact everybody.... 1) At least in our state, with any federal or state funded grant, a real crackdown on 'Buy American' now extended to RELAY materials, not just new steel, which was understood before. Perfectly good 6" double-shoulder relay tie plates stamped "CN" rejected and had to be sorted back out, along with other #1 relay 115# rail from non-US. So 1940 115# from Canada was pulled right back out. 2) Lead times on about anything creeping around a year; enough of a problem that it's become SOP to have to request grant extensions simply because it will take a year for material to arrive. Your grant may expire before you can bid and receive the material. 3) Extreme difficulty sourcing US material on certain things; particularly cast self-guarded switch frogs - those are over a year lead time if can be found at all. You can get waivers, but proving it takes time as well. So part of the lead time issue is related to this in my opinion; the increase in rail funding particularly at the federal level has overloaded the supply chain.

Author:	Ed Kapuscinski [ Mon Oct 30, 2023 10:32 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Feels like a business opportunity!

Author:	Kelly Anderson [ Mon Oct 30, 2023 3:43 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
.

Author:	gcrr [ Sun Nov 05, 2023 4:07 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
I’m camping in Pigeon Forge this weekend and can hear the whistle from the campground. They must have gotten everything repaired and back in operation.

Author:	mmi16 [ Mon Nov 06, 2023 1:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Kelly Anderson wrote: mmi16 wrote: Doesn't speak well of their railroad maintenance forces that a 'special part' has to be manufactured to effect the proper repairs. Hope they are ordering two! You can't stock a spare for everything, or you would have a whole additional railroad. Speaking of ordering two replacement parts, there is an old saying, "If you need it and don't have it, you will never need it again." Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Author:	Mike Tillger [ Mon Nov 06, 2023 3:38 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Quote from poster above "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." Easy to say if your not the one paying for it! Mike Tillger

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Author:	mmi16 [ Tue Nov 07, 2023 12:10 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Dollywood Express derailed at a switch
Mike Tillger wrote: Quote from poster above "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." Easy to say if your not the one paying for it! Mike Tillger Except when the price of not having it is higher It takes money to make money. If you can't afford spares, you can't afford to remain in operation.