Western Railroad Discussion > Pictures from Baxter, CA accident involving work train

These are pictures taken today from a camera phone on-board today's #6 (California Zephyr) passing through the accident site. Photos compliments of sfericsf. Thanks for sending 'em!

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A few more.....

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On the road above is a full blown incident command center with a portable office trailer, outhouses and mucho equipment.

Thanks, I guess.
Looks like a classic overspeed situation, all equipment off to the outside of a curve.

Energy management has to be learned and respected on mountain RRs. There are two ways to go about this, the first is a very full understanding of the basic physics of mass, velocity, gravity, friction, and gradient; the second is absolute adherence to the air brake and train handling instructions (which are of course based on applied physics).

I have seen trains and MofW equipment get into derailment and collision trouble on 2% grades too often. Respect for mountain grades has to be both a gut feeling and a strict rules compliance game. It takes patience, I guess it seems tedious to move so slowly down grades. Only with a very controlled amount of kinetic energy can you stop if something goes wrong. Too much speed and more energy is going into the system than the brakes can dissipate: they simply can't cope and the train accelerates.

Be safe.....from a retired track engineer.