Passenger Trains > Coaster Train Derails

A Coaster train comming from the storage yard in San Diego derailed this evening on Broadway between Kettner and Pacific Hwy just south of the Santa Fe Depot.Broadway is blocked to other trains and automotive traffic as well.Cleanup crews are on the way.No inguries reported at this time.

Coaster sure is having an interesting day.

The train was 661, which doesn't come up from the yard, but rather makes a switch move by backing across broadway off of track 2 then pulling back into the depot on track 1. I heard nothing about how it happened, this is only my observation. I believe the original crew was still on the scene and assisting with the rerailing process, which says to me that they weren't taken out of service thus they may have not been at fault.

A BNSF crew came up from the East with a pair of GEVOs and coupled to the Cab Car, they pulled the train apart at the derailment and the track crew focused on each of the derailed cars separately, with a BNSF crew pulling and rerailing the second car from the East end and a fresh Coaster crew (the same one which was relieved after striking a car in the morning, they were the only rested crew) using the Coaster engine to rerail the first car from the west end. The last set of wheels landed on the rails at about 10:20 PM, five and a half hours after the train derailed.

I was there for about two hours taking pictures, got a few pictures of the rerailing process. There was very little obvious damage, but some of the pavement was torn up across the street and it's possible the Cab Car which was being used as a Trailer that had derailed suffered damage to the Pilot where it was dragged through the ballast and concrete. Overall the situation could have been a lot worse and the crew rerailing the train did a great job with what they had.

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Picture 4: Placing Blocks under the wheels

Picture 5: Up on Blocks

Picture 6: Two Feet Eastbound

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7 8 and 9 come after the train has been separated and the East end rerailed then pulled clear of the crossing, now crews start focusing on the first car, a cab car in trailer position, which was more severely derailed (if there is such a thing) then the second car, complicating this is the Pilot digging into the dirt, as well as the switch right in the middle of everything.

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10) As they worked to rerail the last Trailer I went up to get a picture of the BNSF powercoupled ahead of the Cab Car, it wasn't in the most accessible location so I left it at this.

11 & 12) Rerailing efforts continue

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13) World's Shortest Commuter Train? Odd angle that Cab Car's at!

14) Up the rerailing Irons...

15) With a bang the last wheelset lands on the rail and the gradually shrinking crowd erupts into applause and Cheering.

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16) Everything's on the rail!

17) Minor damage to the pavement, possibly the switch (But they took measures to protect it, and disassembled what they could). Lots of cleanup still to come!

18) The man, the Myth, the Legend. TO's CPR_Hogger relaxes after a long day, it's not often a railroader can say they struck a car and rerailed a train in one day! Now they just have to put the train together and take it to Stuart Mesa, 45 miles away, at 10 MPH. His night's not over yet!

The rerailing effort was well coordinated and well done, many compliments to the SDNR and BNSF crews in pulling this off so well! One of the managers on site mentioned to me this is the first time a Coaster train has derailed in 14 years and 7 months of operation, not a bad record!

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/Coaster-Train-Derails-Downtown/MgrIhNCCpEuFcDy9nZ3bXA.cspx

KFMB had some great footage but it's not online, if it's up tomorrow I'll add the link.

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Glad nobody was hurt and the damage doesn't look too bad. What a long day for Coaster and those crews.

Nathan

nice photos

t

If you listen to the video carefully the reporter calls the BNSF the Northern Burlington Santa Fe.

Andrew.That's the media for you.They always screw up something.

Oh i know it's just stupidly funny.

Surprised the crew wasn't relieved immediately after the incident -- D&A testing is required after all accidents such as this.

Looks like somebody split a switch.

rdb3 Wrote:
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> Surprised the crew wasn't relieved immediately
> after the incident -- D&A testing is required
> after all accidents such as this.


I don't know for sure if the guy was indeed involved, I just couldn't see anybody coming down and helping out after their shift, when I first got there one of the Conductors was helping haul wooden blocks around.

KFMB's article and video, at least they say the BNSF's name right! http://www.760kfmb.com/Global/story.asp?S=11292010