Came over this photo today, any word?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 192&nseq=3

This photo appears in the thread below. The train was empty and the derailment occurred while switching in the evening.

I would be interested in how they got this one back up. Unless one or both cars is off the center casting I think I would put enough power on the front end and start pulling them back to the switch. Given enough help to built track and rerail the cars I think we could have them back up before the cranes or sidebooms arrived unless they were pretty close. We have pulled a few at least this far off back up pretty quickly over the years on the A&R.

John Bohon

I thought the same things John Bohon says above. The other surprising thing to me is how they got so far off as they generally move there at a snails pace and have bodies everywhere with radios?? From the pics it would appear that he kept shoving a good 3/4 car lengths beyond where the lead truck derailed???
Good news is that there were no injuries.
Ross Rowland

Even at very low speeds, this stuff can happen faster than you might think. And if it's after dark, then it happens even faster......

No one was hurt, and no cars turned over. And that's the important thing.

Howard P.
Oak Blocking, CT

Saw the pix somewhere else, on that "pay site" I visit.

If you could separate the 550 from the engine end of the cut of cars, those should have been able to pull right out. But I expect there would be little or no way to uncouple that joint at 70 degrees of bending. Drawbars bound up, maybe damaged, too tight to pull a knuckle pin, buffers binding, a real mess without cranes or ability to lift and straighten that cut. Then likely you will have damage to the drawbars, buffers, wrinkled platforms and step wells, brake rigging, at least on the 550 - - -

So to split a switch, were the points worn, not throwing tight against the stock rail, sharp wheel flanges prone to pick?? Cross level of the track through a switch is more important than many think and a dip to one side could have contributed. Of course pushing a cut introduces the worst case of dynamics, and everything else must be right to avoid such incidents. That is rarely the case in a museum operation where money is short and other 'priorities' competing for the available funds.

That yard area probably just grew like topsy and there are some interesting 'groinks' there, probably worse in this telephoto view than in actuality.

Bob Kutella

http://www.robertjohndavis.com/blog/?p=105

The situation was disappointing, but the NPS handled it well. At least for us, it did not spoil our day. And, as Howard said, no one was hurt and the damage was minimized.

Nothing I saw or experienced would keep me from attending the next fest.

MX, you might be interested in some of the opinions of individuals working at Steamtown expressed this weekend about diesels. One I spoke with shares your POV.

Rob

Rob, thanks for you comment. I know they do, and several of the Park Rangers have a superb understanding of the steam to diesel transition and do an excellent job of explaining it when they are given the opportunity to do so. It is very unfortunate that the NPS management does not understand the change in demographics and interests in the railroad enthusiast population and make some very simple changes to help themselves take advantage of it. They could not only justify their constant use of diesels, but also expand their attractions and add fresh topics to their speaker programs. Their point of view is very strange considering they do steam locomotive restoration in a shop where part of the interior layout was based on plans supplied by EMD. It is absurd to consider some "steam era" freight and passenger equipment to be suitable for the museum collection when diesels that are even older and worked along side steam locomotives are not suitable. Too bad the NPS management does not understand how absurdly silly their policies make them look.

MX

This is a problem that is not limited to Steamtown. Speaking as a Civil War historian and reenactor, the way that many (but not all) of the Battlefields that are under NPS auspices are managed is a royal joke. To give a recent example, at an NPS site in this area, a very large visiting group requested that reenactors be present during their visit to act as historical interpreters for their group. NPS's response was that no reenactors were to be allowed on the property in costume. They could come in only in modern clothing and would be charged admission to guide tours. (This was to be same unit that does very popular living history encampments at another NPS property about 70 miles away) I suppose that the management at this Park was afraid someone might would be offended by a Confederate uniform on a Civil War site. There is no consistency or logic to NPS's actions when it comes to managing historical areas.

All equipment was back on track last (monday) night at around 6PM. Most damage seemed to be confined to the derailed car, none to the 3254.

I can't get into the details of the accident investigation, however it was NOT related to track conditions.

Also, the entire crew was refreshed in Tobyhanna on the return trip, so they were not on the road with the train the whole day.

Dave Crosby

Looks like the derailment blocked the yard throat - how were they able to get the PRR E's out from the Roundhouse for the excursion out the next morning?

-Justin

As Howard said, even at low speeds things can happen quickly. I have only turned one car over while working as engineer in my life and that was a 3 MPH derailment. The important things are nobody was hurt and the damage is limited.

To answer Bob, even if I planned to lift the cars back onto the track I would pull them back as close to the track as possible if for no other reason than to uncouple and seperate the cars for the cranes. The ground looked solid enough to drag the car over on blocks and once you get it back to the switch it really does not matter which track the wheels come back to. You can always rerail the truck, unlatch the switchstand, and allow the next one to trail through the switch on the other route. If necessary you can always torch cut the rail, line it over, spike it in front of the first wheelset of the next truck, lay down a few blocks, and pull the truck up over the end of the rail. There are a lot of options and you have to be flexable and go with whatever will work when you get to each step.

I still think I would try to pull the cars up. I have seen slings and spreaders leave some pretty nasty damage on the side of freight cars and even engines. I would hate to add that to the list of repairs to these coaches. A coworker here at A&R looked at the photo seperately and we agree we think we could pull the cars back up in 5 or 6 hours after we got everyone and everything on site. We have done similar jobs in that time before. Of course this is all still dependent on the cars still being on center and they would appear to be in the photo.

Personally I would love to see how the NPS actually does go about rerailing the coaches.

John Bohon

The rerailing was accomplished using a large truck crane rigged out for a maximum pick of 80,000 lbs. The west end(to the right side of the pic) coupler knuckle had to be cut with a torch. The west end of the car was picked first and boomed outwards to allow the east end coupling to be separated. The west end truck was then placed back on the track. Then they swung over and picked the east end of the car and set it back on track. Time to accomplish this was under 30 minutes from the first pick to disconnecting the slings from the car. They used a spreader bar above the car and hung a pair of nylon slings from each side which then connected to a pair of 1 1/4 wire rope slings which were put under the car on each side of the bolster and connected to the nylon slings. The car body was protected with some oak blocking at the bottom edge. There was no equipment damage at all from the lifting. They used a local crane company, Lanes Crane, who has a reputation for getting the job done economically and safe.

They had considered pulling the cars back to the track and rerailing with blocks, but there is quite a change in elevation (filled in with loose gravel)between the 2 tracks and would have probably done more damage as the block supply was somewhat limited.

Thanks to Mike Tilger for that comprehensive update on the derailment cleanup. Glad it all went well and there evidently was no major damage done.
From all reports, on balance it would appear that it was a positive weekend despite the various hiccups and it certainly generated some badly needed additional "life" into the facility!!
Congratulations to all who worked hard to put it together and as Tim said I'm sure the lessons learned this year will make next years better!!
Ross Rowland

It should also be noted the throat of the yard, just beyond the tower is actually on a bridge (Bridge 60). Its difficult to see that in the photos.