Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF wreck, Essex MT

> Preliminary Report: Derailment near Essex, Montana

> On Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 8:15 a.m. Central Time, we received a preliminary report
> that S-SEACHC1-18 derailed on both main tracks near Essex, Montana. Essex, Montana is
> located 200 miles west of Havre, Montana.

> BNSF personnel are currently en route to the derailment site to determine the impact.
> BNSF will continue to provide you with additional information as it becomes available.
> Customers may experience delays of 36 to 48 hours on shipments moving through this corridor.

-BNSF Railway

GenePoon Wrote:
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> > Customers may experience delays of 36 to 48
> hours on shipments moving through this corridor.
>
> -BNSF Railway

I'm betting BNSF customers have already been experiencing big delays to their shipments before this...

This is certainly not good news for a rail line that's already plugged up. Hopefully, it wasn't too big of a mess and that they'll be able to get it cleared up quickly. Fortunately, it doesn't sound like there were any injuries.

For all of those headed to MT for photos expect fresh snow, bright blue skies and sub zero temperatures. Dress accordingly. The Izaak Walton Inn may be booked but the meals should be hot and tasty.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Well the rumors of gridlock were are a little exaggerated then, if it's stuck 'doh' in a siding it's tougher to derail.

"the rumors of gridlock"

Not rumors, cold, hard facts about gridlock and this certainly will not help the situation especially going into the holiday.

MRL does not show any detours yet. They can probably handle some eastbounds and maybe opening up Hauser will allow some of the westbound sludge to clear off of the MRL.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

TCnR Wrote:
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> Well the rumors of gridlock were are a little
> exaggerated then, if it's stuck 'doh' in a siding
> it's tougher to derail.

Isn't the trains symbol a stack train? If so, it would be one of the trains getting priority through the gridlock anyway. When that topic was last discussed it was noted that the grain traffic is really taking the hit.

Posted from Android

fbe Wrote:
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> The Izaak Walton
> Inn may be booked but the meals should be hot and
> tasty.
>

I'm sure business is about to pick up!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

The event was at the Essex cross overs. Stack cars are on their sides. Reportedly there is a yard track clear around it and there will be no AMTK reroutes nor bus detours. There should be rare yard track miles for collectors. No problems booking flights due to weather at Kalispell, Great Falls, Helena or Missoula thru the weekend.

ATTN Maria: Your retired uncle has nothing to do these days so have him fire up the flivver and take you to Essex for dinner.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/13 11:34 by fbe.

They run a boatload of stack trains (no pun intended but I'll take any credit going around). I can never determine if it's an EB or a WB, empties or loads. I guess an Altamont TT would explain it to me.

Should be the season for empties heading to Port. It would be interesting to know if it was one of the mega-stack trains that they run every so often.

Last I heard, the funnel had about 50 to 60 trains in a 24 hour time frame. Which was down from the BN era since they can run longer trains now. Curious what the current estimates are.

TCNR,

It was an e/b stack train from Seattle (If I believe the train symbol is correct then it would be from Stacy Street Yard just south of King St. Station) headed to Chicago, IL. I will say that I'm not 100% up to the actual train lengths they run out of Stacy St. yard..


SP8100

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Preliminary Report: Derailment near Essex,
> Montana
>
> > On Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 8:15 a.m.
> Central Time, we received a preliminary report
> > that S-SEACHC1-18 derailed on both main tracks
> near Essex, Montana. Essex, Montana is
> > located 200 miles west of Havre, Montana.

Here's more...

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/bnsf_freight_train_derails_in_essex/36665/

inCHI Wrote:
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> Isn't the trains symbol a stack train? If so, it
> would be one of the trains getting priority
> through the gridlock anyway.

Stack trains aren't very high priority on the Hi-Line anymore. If it doesn't have Z in front of the symbol it doesn't mean anything... And even the Z's aren't super hot.

Posted from iPhone

TV reports say all 5 cars are standing upright with nothing about cars on their sides. Five intermodal cars could mean anywhere between five and twenty five platforms involved.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

eightandsand Wrote:
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> inCHI Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Isn't the trains symbol a stack train? If so,
> it
> > would be one of the trains getting priority
> > through the gridlock anyway.
>
> Stack trains aren't very high priority on the
> Hi-Line anymore. If it doesn't have Z in front of
> the symbol it doesn't mean anything... And even
> the Z's aren't super hot.
>
> Posted from iPhone

When your doing 10-12 on a Z trains these days they don't seem that hot either, but I guess jst making it to the end of the trip on a train is a good thing on the North lines. We also had a couple red block violations between Spokane and Sandpoint that helped to kill everything yesterday.

Pacific5th Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> eightandsand Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > inCHI Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Isn't the trains symbol a stack train? If so,
> > it
> > > would be one of the trains getting priority
> > > through the gridlock anyway.
> >
> > Stack trains aren't very high priority on the
> > Hi-Line anymore. If it doesn't have Z in front
> of
> > the symbol it doesn't mean anything... And even
> > the Z's aren't super hot.
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> When your doing 10-12 on a Z trains these days
> they don't seem that hot either, but I guess jst
> making it to the end of the trip on a train is a
> good thing on the North lines. We also had a
> couple red block violations between Spokane and
> Sandpoint that helped to kill everything
> yesterday.

The Symbol S denotes that it is a stack, SEACHC1-18 is Seattle to CHicago priority 1 called on the 18th. As for the Zs, this time of year if it has any UPS on it, it's a FLYER. Usually though, Z9s are the hottest.

70ACE>
> The Symbol S denotes that it is a stack,
> SEACHC1-18 is Seattle to CHicago priority 1 called
> on the 18th. As for the Zs, this time of year if
> it has any UPS on it, it's a FLYER. Usually
> though, Z9s are the hottest.

Correction: the number 1 after the SEACHC is the section designation of the train, not the priority. On the railroad, everything is inverse of reality. A section one train is the lowest priority, a higher section number (like 9) usually has higher priority than a section 1. But again, the only thing on the RR that you can bank on is your paycheck and everything being your fault...

70ACE Wrote:
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> The Symbol S denotes that it is a stack,
> SEACHC1-18 is Seattle to CHicago priority 1 called
> on the 18th. As for the Zs, this time of year if
> it has any UPS on it, it's a FLYER. Usually
> though, Z9s are the hottest.

Pacific5th and I both are engineers for BNSF; I think we know what the symbols designate. All we were saying is that stack trains aren't priority shipments and even Z6's and Z7's aren't anymore. (I just died on hours of service last trip on the Z-CHCSSE7 while I climbed off of it at the depot)