Western Railroad Discussion > Boise Valley Railroad BSU Engine On The Ground

Boise Valley Railroad has one of its BSU-themed engines on the ground in rural Greenleaf, Idaho, as reported here.
Greenleaf is a few miles west of Caldwell, Idaho, which is about 20-25 miles west of Boise, Idaho.
Temps have been around 10-15 above zero for the past few days and we've had a few inches of snow.
One breathless reporterette (on another network) reported, while on the air, saying that fog wasn't a cause for the derailment :)
Phil

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Ice caused train to derail west of Caldwell, officials say 

Caldwell fire officials said a train engine derailed west of Caldwell on Wednesday afternoon. The accident happened near Simplot Boulevard, also known as Idaho 19, near the intersection of Top Road.

Battalion Chief Brad Carico said ice built up in the flangeways — the openings that run parallel to the tracks making way for a train’s wheel flanges — caused the derailment.“Normally the ice would break as the train passed. But in this case, the ice was tougher than the locomotive,” said Carico.



http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/community/canyon-county/article123340564.html


 

Wild ride for the crew! Neat paint scheme.

Looks like it was running long hood forward?
I'm not familiar with that local line, but don't think it runs all the way to Greenleaf.
I think it mostly services businesses off Simplot Blvd?
Phil

That line runs all the way to Wilder. Besides the cluster of sidings near Simplot, there is a new grain elevator type complex on the way to Wilder, and another small Simplot complex in Wilder.

They run it "backwards" one way, and "forwards" another..

I would imagine the track had just as much to do with it as any ice. Much of that line looks like it has almost no ballast, with the ties buried in dirt. 

I was sad to see the Marsing Line get ripped up a number of years ago. In UP's documents, it stated that service would continue to Wilder. The condition of the line to Wilder last time I seen it looked barely passable.

"reportette?" LOL
 

The way news gets "reported" anymore amazes me.
Every accident includes mention of an "SUV" (never a "subcompact"), airplanes crash because their "motor stalled", trains derail due to fog, engineers/conductors are "train drivers", etc.
Phil

And the inevitable question of why the conductor didn't steer the train to miss the car stopped on the crossing.

Out

Sorry I don't get the problem with the article.  Photo was poor but the text covered basics of what happened, what is not exactly the news story of the year even for somewhere in Idaho.  So certainly would be glad to hear what the problem was with the story is.  I didn't see anything about a conductor, steering or factual errors.

Honestly the media news critics on T/O's gets a little old, ie tiresome, boring, tedious:  if someone has something to add or correct??? 
It seems what I read from the expert railfans has about a 50 pct error rate???  Not sure why if is a probably a stringer for a small time paper that ??????

Bob

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/16 12:06 by robj.

Bob ~
You missed my point.
I was referring to the reporterette on another news network that said the accident wasn't caused by fog.
Phil

Bob, you don't listen to enough news ,my comment was exactly what was asked about an accident in New Mexico a couple
years ago. By and large news people don't have a clue about railroads.

Out

Sorry you didn't read MY post which was about THIS article for which I did not see glaring errors so I did not see the need to comment about  the "reporterette" simply because she is a "gurl".  In small markets like where I live, often photos are done by college students or someone local who can get out and do some news(I took photo classes with many and they are just trying to get along for little compensation). 

Bob