Passenger Trains > 58(16) Derailed near Tuscola, IL

The 2nd from the last car derailed near mp 147 at about 6:30am. The rear two cars were cut off at the site and the rest of the train continued into Chicago with about a 90 minute delay. The car that derailed was one of the Pullman service cars.

Oh great. I'm booked on next month. I thougt it was the track south of Memphis that was so bad. It will be interesting to discover the reason.

Was this site the same site in 1972 when City of New Orleans derailed killing 42 people

No. I believe you are talking about the derailment at Tonti which is milepost 238.8

11 died in the 1971 Amtrak derailment, which, until the Sunset Limited disaster, was its deadliest accident. 45 died in the 1972 collision of IC commuter trains.

As derailments go, apparently pretty trivial per this posting from the Yahoo IC group / list. But needless to say the potential for a serious accident was there. I hope this doesn't harm this wonderful new service. Stuff happens.

Posted by "maryrae17"

That derailment was a broken axle on private car Baton Rouge on 58. Happened
between the diamond and North Tuscola, and tore up the North Tuscola switch.
Only the broken axle went on the ground, and there were no injuries; just a few
rude awakenings.

Not sure I would call a broken axle "trivial"

This story brings back the (awful) memory of the Bourbonnais, IL <1999>
disastrous collision of the CONO and the loaded steel big rig truck; whose
driver (sigh) was said to have been "trying to beat the train" at
an industrial crossing. I forget the carnage level- it was bad, though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/12 10:45 by OldPorter.

From what little I understand about the mechanics involved here..........

It follows that the axle could have broken after banging across the almost 90' Tuscola diamond, with the impact from the crossing enough to crack the rest of the break. From photos of the car taken before the accident, I think the car is equipped with CFraMe disc brake trucks and pedestal tie bar straps (instead of Amtrak "stubs"), both items contributing to the limited severity of this incident. The fact that there was a speed restriction in place for the crossing, and that most of the wheel remained intact should allow for an interesting insight into the root cause of this failure. I have a feeling that if there is not any more rigorous axle inspections in place now, there will be in the future at wheel shops and regular inspection intervals to prevent this from happening again.

Remember, Murphy was an optimist, and maybe a carknocker - if it can happen, it will happen.

Further information here:
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&amp;t=34112&amp;sid=bfffe3c94f01d33797039a5d764a17d6

That was March of 1999, unless there was another prior crash there.

OldPorter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This story brings back the (awful) memory of the
> Bourbonnais, IL (1980's) disastrous collision of
> the CONO and the loaded steel big rig truck

I should have been clearer that I meant trivial as in the effect of this particular broken axle where that axle was the only thing on the ground. We all realize the potential for a major calamity that can be caused by a broken axle, wheel, or other critical truck parts if it happens at speed. That is why there is great interest in finding the cause.

I presume in an instance like this, no one on other cars would even be aware, much less the engineer and the train was brought safely to a stop by an employee aboard the afflicted car feeling it and running to the vestibule to pull the air.

Thanks for the clarification!

meh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That was March of 1999, unless there was another
> prior crash there.
>
>Thanks meh- fixed it in my post.

This is why I have "old" in my TO handle! (-: