Six months after a runaway covered hopper off the NYS&W collided with New York Central 0-6-0 6721, the locomotive remains at Utica, NY's Union Station awaiting repairs. Insurance negotiations are ongoing. Photo taken this morning.

Thank you for the update.

Has there been any explanation of how this accident happened and what has been done to prevent it from happening again? Are people still putting their lives at risk as they congregate near the end of the track?

If I recall correctly, it was stated in previous discussion, perhaps in a link, that a kid managed to release the handbrake and bled off the brakes, allowing the car to roll away...
Aside from making the kid or his family pay for damages somehow....there isn't much that can be done to protect against this happening again...
Among the things I was taught early in my railroading career was to "chock" the car on at least a couple wheels when leaving it standing alone....the chocks were just random pieces of wood...bits of old ties, etc... this being in addition to the usual handbrake, etc...
It was fortunate that the steam loco was there, had it not been, the hopper might have gone all the way thru onto the platform...
An effective, but simple way to prevent a car from hitting the loco again would be to install a derailer a car length or two up the track... or perhaps a mound of dirt, etc...

I think it said somewhere that the car actually went through a locked derail before hitting 6721.

Well, kids will always release handbrakes. Since the risk of a runaway is obvious, it is negligent to routinely place unsuspecting people in its path. It has been said that there was a derail on the track that would have prevented the collision with the steam locomotive and threat to people nearby. Will we ever learn precisely why this derail did not function as intended?

When you have the existence of a lockable derail, and they fact that it did not derail the car going unexplained, officially blaming the kid who released the handbrake seems like a red herring.

The risk of getting run over when crossing the street is even greater, given that people routinely run red lights, don't stop for pedestrians, text while driving, etc. Since that should be obvious to anyone who pays attention to the news even occasionally, are we negligent in routinely allowing people/cars to use the same space? Threat to people nearby? Like a ten thousand ton train at 50MPH dragging banding or derailing next to a platform where people are waiting for a passenger train?

The kid was unsupervised, trespassing, and tampering with RR equipment, resulting in a criminal act. IIRC, he was not prosecuted for his actions. I guess we're just blaming it on 'It's not his fault', 'He didn't know', 'His parents didn't teach him about that', 'Public education failed again', or some other such BS. Remember, no one is responsible for anything anymore unless it results in catastrophe, which this apparently doesn't qualify for since no one got hurt. He probably didn't even get a good paddling to help him remember his transgression, since we can't do that anymore.

Rail-top derails, temporary or permanent, (precisely) don't function with any reliability above a certain speed, due to the laws of physics. They are not designed to protect against anything beyond slow speed movements. It was reported that the runaway car was traveling well above the speed necessary to nullify the derail. Since the runaway, the NYSW station track has been disconnected well beyond the platform and the new end relocated, with a stone pile at the end of active track.

I hope that the engine can be repaired to at least as good a condition as before the incident.

I am not trying to exonerate the kid who released the brake, but only pointing out that a runaway was inevitable if the only prevention was a handbrake remaining applied. Disconnecting the track before it reaches the building and blocking the end with a stone pile sounds like the proper remedy. I am glad that its need has finally been recognized.

But I am still curious about the derail, which also could have prevented the collision. Many have said that it is possible for the derail to have failed to derail, but nobody has reported that this actually happened. Does anybody actually know why the derail did not do its job?

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If the car was going faster than 15-20 mph, it would probably have skipped over a conventional rail top derail....the only effective way to stop/derail it would have probably been a switch point style derail...even so, it would still have been pretty messy.
Probably better to disconnect the track and put up a stone pile, as they seem to have done...
No matter what we do, it is practically impossible to secure every part of any railroad to prevent things like this from happening....even putting a skate at such a location would only result in the skate being stolen...we can only secure a car as best we can and hope that no one with enough knowledge to release such will decide to be destructive/stupid...

Flop-over derails are usually designed to work in one direction. IOW, if it is set for something that might move north and it gets hit by something moving south, it won't do much, and will probably end up with the spikes being pulled right out of the tie it's spiked to.

There are derails that are effective in both directions.

A split rail derail will also only work in one direction.

The covered hopper traveled approx 2.5 miles before colliding with 6721, including rolling down 6/10th mile street running on Utica, NY's Schuyler Street. It ran over a derail approx 1/4 mile into its journey; below is a photo showing railroad employees checking the derail shortly after the event.

Estimated top speed was 40MPH.

Also, here is a link to a short video showing how the NYS&W severed their passenger lead into Utica's Union Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUwLFnCYJG0

If flop over derails are unreliable over about 20 mph, why use one on a track that allows cars to runaway at 40 mph?

Which is why many railroads (UP for example) now specify split-point derails for protection of mainline tracks.

Howard P.

The derail in that photo is open. I haven't seen an accident report, but unless someone testified that it was still closed after the accident, it wouldn't have done much good anyway.