Western Railroad Discussion > Photos of the Bagdad (BNSF Needles Sub) Derailment

Here are a few shots I grabbed when I was there this afternoon. I had to be quick about it since one of the MOW guys there told me I had my rig parked where they wanted to unload the heavy equipment, so I shot and left. Unfortunately I couldn't get any images of Track 1, which had some truck debris (frames, wheel sets, etc) on it.

I happened onto this about an hour after a really nasty squal passed through the area, washing over old 66 in a lot of places, leaving baseball-sized cobbles on the road along with sand, gravel, mud, broken-off brush, etc. There was still water flowing in some of the stream beds as I went through the area. Flash flood city!

1) The view from the road crossing east of Bagdad. I didn't see a FRED on the last car - perhaps there were others that were taken away earlier? Two automax sets were still upright.

2) Two automax sets upright, two leaning over, a whole lot all over the ground.

3) No autos inside - empty, light cars in a shifting high wind. Ouch. (my opinion, of course).

More to follow . . .

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

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4) Down toward the other end of the mess, a westbound sits waiting for whatever comes next. A loose weelset sits out on the sand at the edge of the ROW. A loose truck can just be seen to the left of the frame - it was sitting partly on Main 1, one of many such items scattered around over both tracks. Other than the truck debris, it didn't look to me like Main 1 took much of a hit, though that was as seen at a distance by me, who don't know much, mostly.

5) Another view of the "carnage" (it's ok to groan).

6) The cleanup crew starts to gather. I beat it out of there at this point.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/13 22:53 by CimaScrambler.

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7) The head end of the westbound stopped in the middle of mayhem, taken from over on old 66.

8) The head end of the train that partly derailed, taken from over on old Route 66.

That's all for now. I'll drive by the site on the way home tomorrow and see if there is anything else of photogenic interest.

Until then -

Kit (from Needles).

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

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Some guys just have all the luck.
—Mac

The luck, in this case, was that my wife was working on her computer at home with the Doppler Radar on one screen and called me on the cell when she saw the nasty bit heading across my path. I slowed my pace enough to get there after it passed, and so missed a ride down some wash without a surf board. Luck is having a good wife and a cell phone.

I have been out along the Needles Sub any number of times, and have seen a lot. I have seen nothing before to compare with today.

- k

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/13 22:59 by CimaScrambler.

The cars look to be empty, and the way they are laid over looked like they could have been blown over. Did you see any holes in the roadbed where a washout could have occurred?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

No washout evident on the railroad ROW, unlike Route 66, which was a mess. I think blown over is right. Winds nearby were strong enough to blow me over a half-hour earlier, and were gusting higher than that. Really nasty squal. Blowing dust caused a pile-up on I-40 at Newberry Springs. Lots of dry washes showing wet banks several feet high. Glad I was there after it passed.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

Here are a couple photos of the same train as it was departing Northern CA on Friday morning. The train left Richmond with conventional cars upfront and the remainder of the train was all Auto-Max articulated tunnel scrapers. It also had an extra four locomotives that it would have dropped off between Stockton and Riverbank. I didn't hear a train symbol, possibly a RICCLO or RICKCK.

Photo #1 - 08/23/13 BNSF 976 East 1109 hours at Collier, MP. 1179, less than 10 miles out of Richmond. Train was making well below track speed, not sure it was a power problem or the engineer was taking it easy.

Photo#2 - 08/23/13 BNSF 976 East 1159 hours coming out of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station property at Bay Point, about 15 miles further east from the first photo. Train had stopped for awhile at Maltby and was still moving here well below track speed.

Gary

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V-RICCLO1-23A, not sure why they weren't making speed? The Auto Max cars are restricted to 13 MPH in tunnel 3, but that was still miles ahead when they were at Collier.

Sweet series Kit! Nothing like being on the scene shortly thereafter!

Ted S-P

wpdude Wrote:
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> V-RICCLO1-23A, not sure why they weren't making
> speed? The Auto Max cars are restricted to 13 MPH
> in tunnel 3, but that was still miles ahead when
> they were at Collier.

Never heard anything on the radio and he had a warrant to Port Chicago, but was not doing more than 25 at Collier, less at Christie, well before the tunnel. I shot it again in Martinez and he was still doing about 25 down hill and I had time to beat him all the way to Nichols. I could see him stopped at or near Maltby and then was not doing more than about 30 at Nichols (Bay Point).
Not sure if Amtrak (714) had just gone through at Nichols and that is why he had stopped and was still moving slowly. But I could not complain about getting an extra shot or two of this consist.

Glad no one was hurt on the train down around Bagdad.

Gary

Yeah, pretty ferocious derailment, thank God no injuries! Slow train equals more photo ops Gary! Good catches, Kit and Gary!

Thanks for the background and the pictures.

Glad nobody was injured in the storm.

Both mains open yet? What was the final impact on Amtrak #4 and #3?

And the whackos who say that those are Government Prison Cars on the internet (it's on the internet so it must be true!) are probably claiming credit for derailing these cars "for the people!". ;-)

PHall Wrote:
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> And the whackos who say that those are Government
> Prison Cars on the internet (it's on the internet
> so it must be true!) are probably claiming credit
> for derailing these cars "for the people!". ;-)


LOL. But only LOL in 'Merica. LOL all you want, but I have seen a government prison train before, in France. It was rather obvious, because each car was painted like the French flag, and it said "TRAIN DE TRANSPORT PRISONNIERS: REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE" on it. Otherwise, it looked like a normal train. Not even any barred windows.

Tor in Eugene

Interesting set of pics!!! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the interesting post.
John

And contrary to the reporting marks everything was not AOK!

Tim
mp35mountain

I remember when those articulated Max cars came out. It was a bit before 2000, and I was responsible for the Y2K issues at the office. Part of that was browsing Y2K sites, and seeing what people suggested or thought.

One list I was on had a guy who interviewed a retired general. He showed him a photo of an articulated auto car and asked him what it was - the general said, there is no reason I can think of for these cars except to move rioters and other anti-government protesters to concentration camps.

Damned near had to replace my monitor with the spit-take on that one.