[redacted]

Link with pictures
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/region/ETtoday/stories/2007/07/07/train_crash.html

http://www.news-journal.com/news/conten ... crash.html

From the Altamont BBS:

As someone who has organized and operated many excursions I sadly watched this video and how this incident progressed from one of happiness and comeraderie to the tragic culminating event. This is a operators nightmare. Thank God no one was injured. My hearts are out to the people at the Texas State Railroad and wish them well in their future operations. This type of thing evidently can happen to anyone at any time.

Not only do they have to deal with the derailment, they also have to deal with six inches of rain which has caused some washouts along the line.

I think it is a relief to have a video show that the concussion was minor and that the riders' response was laughter and disbelief. I suppose the riders in that last coach got the real scare and crash force.

[redacted]

I'm glad we got to see this video. It sure shows how the news story made it sound much worse that it really was. And even though it is still a bad thing to have happened, I think the video shows the crew were not negligible.

You can hear the breaks being applied to the moving train before the impact and that is before you hear the whistle on 300. So that means they had to have radio-ed ALL STOP to the moving train before the impact.

I'm sure there are other facts in this video that I haven't noticed yet, but I'm glad it has been shown so that we aren't left with only a misleading headline.

Alan
Louisiana

I realize that this is going to be all conjecture, but what would have caused such a incident in the first place? The only things I can think of are a faulty switch (poorly fitting points, broken throw bar, etc.) or sharp flanges on the coach.

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The investigation continues. For various reasons I cannot say what the believed preliminary cause of the accident, but it is being looked at.

Somebody ought to do a scientific study on this psychological phenomenon. Where does it come from? I've felt the urge to operate a switch while a train is on it myself. After many years I've been able to suppress the urge to the point where it doesn't affect me too badly, but it's still there. One of the stranger parts of railroading!

From the looks of it, I would say the rear truck of the last car picked the switch...it did not derail...you can clearly see that in the video as the last truck of the car clearly starts to take the siding..the impact caused the car to lean. I had thought they used spring swithces like SRR and NH&I do for this passing location?...if thats the case, either there is something with the car itself that caused this....or the spring holding the points for the main broke.

If Kelly is correct in his thoughts, then it's indeed human error.

Either way, it's a black eye that this Railroad didn't need right now.

I hope they can "recover" from this and that whoever was involved, passenger and crew wise is OK.

> Somebody ought to do a scientific study on this psychological
> phenomenon. Where does it come from?

There's two different situations.

1) Throwing the switch just before the train arrives. The crewmember doubts he has things set correctly, and rushes to "fix" the problem, cuasing a wreck. Adding to the problem is that when you're standing next to a switch and viewing the target, it shows the opposite of what it shows down the track. (i.e. If the green target is facing the train, then a crewman standing beside the stand, perpendicular to the track, sees a red target.) Seeing the wrong target, and not realizing it's due to the angle he's viewing it from, he quickly throws the switch, followed shortly by the sound of crunching metal.

That's why they tell you to throw the switch, check it, then get far enough away there's no danger of a last minute change. Also, getting 20 feet away means you'll now see the target properly, as well as not having the chance to quickly reach over and throw the switch.


2) Throwing the switch under the train. In this case, you're simply thinking ahead to the next move. You get ahead of yourself, possibly once the engine has passed you consider that move "completed" without thinking about the rest of the train. Or maybe the crewman sees the last car and says "OK, they're by" and doesn't verify they're actually past the points.

It is a fairly common problem. I've seen a brakeman nearly get his arm yanked out of the socket as he threw an old ground throw stand, fortunately on a trailing point move, only to have the car slam the points back into position, yanking the handle back down to the ground. Since he had a pretty firm grip on the handle, he got a real surprise.

I think the "mind numbing routine" comment is probably spot on. While this stuff can be exciting for railfans, the crew members who do it daily get bored, just like any other worker, and occasionally daydream or make mistakes. Some mistakes just have bigger consequences than others.

No one has talked at all about the actual damage to the passenger car and to #300. Does anyone have photos of the two?

Les