Western Railroad Discussion > More pictures from the derailment in Littleton, CO

A Union Pacific loaded coal train derailed about MP 11 on the Pikes Peak Subdivision in the early morning of Dec 11. UP/BNSF share the corridor with RTD light rail service. Main one is right next to the light rail tracks and the train derailed into the path of a light train. As you can see in some of the pics, the light rail train plowed through some of the coal before derailing on its adjacent track. So the train derailed, then the light rail train ran into it. It looked as though Main number 3 is open so the railroads will be able to run some trains.

Pic #1 The rear car of the RTD. You can see the plow marks through the coal.
Pic #2 There is a gas station to the right of the picture. Since the tracks are depressed though the area, the coal cars piled up next to, not into the gas station.
Pic #3 You can see the RTD tracks are the two to the right. The train is on main one. Obviously a lot of cleanup work needs to be done before light rail can move again.

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Pic #1 The final resting place of the RTD car.
Pic #2 You can see how far the wreckage pushed the RTD over.

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These are from the other side of the wreckage.

Pic #1 Looking southwest
Pic #2 Looking northwest

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Yup, that'll ruin yer day!

Any idea how fast the coal train was going?

glendale Wrote:
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> Any idea how fast the coal train was going?

30-40mph depending on tonnage.

If any body is interested, here's the video of the derailment from this morning from 9News.com

http://www.9news.com/video/player.aspx?aid=45309&bw=

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

UP coal loads tend to be better powered than BNSF trains and can make track speed as long as no BNSF is coal load is in front of them. I have seen the DS hold a BNSF coal load to let faster UP coal trains get out in front.

This looks like a coal load I saw here in Grand Junction on Sunday. Timing is about right and it would have had six AC units to speed it over the Palmer Divide.

KK

OK folks

I'm a real transit fan and supporter of riding public transit. But....now we can see why BNSF and UP are concerned about liability when light rail wants to run along freight lines. Forget the cause, but what would be the legal issues if a fully loaded (with passengers) Light Rail Train would have been running along this line during the derailment. Just think of all the (outlandlish) lawsuits from passengers being bounced around. I now have to side with the RRs on this. No matter the cause, when you build a LR line along a freight line, this can happen.

The BNSF was publicly chastised for getting a waiver against lawsuits from nearby LRV tracks on the west extension from Denver. I guess they were correct.

Comments?

should be an interesting thread.

These are Denver from newest light rail order, looks like it hit canterry support.
up 7330 south derailment was close to front end, and these 3 cars also stopped before the lead group and power.

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pic of the head end, broken rail, and investigators suspect this damaged bearing, but didn't know if the damage was post accident or causel.

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Close up of the suspect bearing, First train by on main 3, BNSF wanted to get going, after lifting 1 wheel set that was near main 3, and placating the FRA guy with lookouts, plenty of bell and whistle 10mph , the 1st train by 11:30 ish, about 5 hours after the wreck. Ridge road which was closed in 85 became a staging area on the east, with a new crossing put in, as cranes from the west had to wait for removal of the light rail wires.

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The light rail driver saw the train derail right in front of him, and he thinks the coal saved their buts. The clerk at the gas station thought it was a little loud for a snowplow. Wonder if they have a camera pointing towards the tracks?

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i am a retired carman and after looking at the pictures of suspect barring there is no wheel on axel were the shinny part is ....the roller baring is still on axel but the entire wheel is gone on right side . thay are pressed on with up to 100 ton press ,,but with all the wrickage in back it cound have pushed the wheel off or if it came loose it wounld be out of gage and that would cause pile up . broken rail could have done it too. only a posablity |||||

ABC World News flat out stated tonight that the derailment was a direct result of the ice storm that hit Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

We all know that anything the news reports is entirely correct, even if there was no ice storm in the Denver area, let alone Eastern Colorado.

The news media NEVER ALLOWS FACTS to get in the way of reporting news stories. Especially when reporting on entirely unrelated events, but combining them anyway and not
bothering to show any evidence to support their claims.

I love it how 120 ton coal cars just 'fall off the tracks'. What utter crap.

Never ceases to amaze me how much energy is going on in a relatively slow moving heavy train. The commuters were very lucky, a few seconds the wrong way and that light rail would have been flat. Not good.

What's with all the B&W pics. in first part of this post? Don't you folks have anymore color film. Best ask Santa to bring some then. That's just like the media to call'em boxcars. Any piece of heavy equip, loader, scraper, backhoe and even a skid steer loader is called a bulldozer.
Oh, so did a UP train run into a BNSF train or not? This hasn't been made clear up yet upkpfan

upkpfan Wrote:
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> What's with all the B&W pics.

What are you talking about? I think you are confusing B&W with color on a gloomy overcast day. None of the pics I posted are B&W.


> Oh, so did a UP train run into a BNSF train or
> not? This hasn't been made clear up yet

No. Only one train is involved. The UP shot out of the curve derailing into an on coming RTD light rail train. The RTD train didn't stop in time and hit the coal train. Hope that clears it up.

Didja notice the bright orange vests?




upkpfan Wrote:
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> What's with all the B&W pics. in first part of
> this post? Don't you folks have anymore color
> film.

In your "suspect bearing" picture - heck, where's the wheel? Is that the wheel's hub in the middle of the shaft?

Can heat from a failed bearing cause the wheel to un-press itself from the shaft? Of was the wheel destroyed in the resulting carnage?

WP