Western Railroad Discussion > More Info on Wind River Canyon derailment

An "official" report........

A BNSF southbound train the H-LAUDEN1-11 with 86 cars derailed after striking a large boulder which had slid down off an embankment at about 12:35 p.m. (MST). A small rock slide had occurred and the boulder was the major portion. The slide was approximately 15 feet above the Main Track and approximately 15 feet across, the boulder was about the size of a small compact car, weight unknown. The POD is on located on tangent track and a 2-degree curve 500 feet north of the POD.

The timetable speed at the POD is 30 mph speed of train at the time of derailment is unknown at this time. The terrain at the POD consist of an embankment of dirt with boulders approximately 10 feet away from the Main Track which raises at about 100 feet at approximately a 55-degrees angle with a 200 or more foot rock cliff above the embankment. On the other side of the Main Track the Wind River which located approximately 50 below the Main Track which about a 10 foot shoulder from the closest rail.

The lead locomotive (BNSF 4702) struck the boulder derailing and stopping with the head end in the river about 120 feet from impact with boulder, the engineers window was above the water. The trailing locomotive was on it's side still on the track grade, the first car in the consist had fallen down the embankment and partially in the river, this car contained grain. Three other cars remained on the main track grade one on it's side, one at 45 degrees and the fourth car upright, all were covered hoppers.

The Engineer and Conductor had to climb out of the engineers side window and climbed into the river to gain access to the river bank. A Sheriff Deputy had walked into the derailment area to administer any first aid and noted the train crew had hypothermia. He help walk the crew members to a place where an ambulance could escort them to the hospital. It was reported the train crew had no broken bones or life threatening injuries and were treated for hypothermia and released from the hospital at about 6:30 p.m.

An emergency response team was call for the diesel and oil from the locomotive spilling on to the ground and into the river. The locomotives were fueled in Laurel, MT about 332 miles away. The approximate fuel in each locomotive is 3600 to 3800 gallons apiece, it is estimate about 4000 gallons of fuel has leaked out and 60 gallons of oil. Thermopolis water service has shut down collecting water which is down river about 4 from the derailment. Containment booms were placed near the partially submerged locomotive and two separate booms completely across the river were near Thermopolis and at Thermopolis. The river is at a high flow rate at this time of year.

The BNSF plans to remove the rail cars this evening and begin to transloading the diesel and oil by morning. No estimates for damage of equipment or track at this time



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/10 09:49 by cinder.

I am very glad the crew made it out all right (despite being very cold and wet). Scary wreck!

for pics and video

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_94099ba0-5ebe-11df-ac10-001cc4c002e0.html

Very happy the crew is going to be ok... You can bet there's going to be Slidefence installed here pretty quickly.

Since people have been on the scene, a few more rocks have come down here and there. They'll take things very cautiously through the night. The boulder will be chipped up where it sits. Explosives are a back up option. The question is how will the rock wall do with the noise and vibrations? If anybody can watch, the 4702 will be drug up with many a machine.

This is far from the first time equipment has gone into the Wind River due to rocks coming down and no rockslide fence has been installed yet, with the attendant ABS signals, and this is not even the worst part of that canyon... --- --- - --- JLH

zengineer Wrote:
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> Very happy the crew is going to be ok... You can
> bet there's going to be Slidefence installed here
> pretty quickly.

Ha, ha, ha.

Yes, sure.

They've been talking about installing a slide fence for the past 20 years. Maybe BNSF will wake up after this....

Jfranziniberger Wrote:
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> They've been talking about installing a slide
> fence for the past 20 years. Maybe BNSF will wake
> up after this....


Someone has to die before they will "wake up".

SD452XR Wrote:
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> Someone has to die before they will "wake up".

Yeah, they have to have someone to name it for . . .

RailNet802, owevahhhh

p.s., for a good laugh read this account:

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-443404?ref=email