Western Railroad Discussion > Wind River Canyon Derailment Update

The derailment site happened to be right along where my work took me this week anyway, so I did Monday's drive today in hopes of catching them pulling the engines out of the drink. I was a little late for that, but here is what I found:

As of about 1400 Mountain, derailed engines and cars are back on the track on their own trucks. Panel track was being placed where a couple hundred feet of rail was damaged. It looked like the rest of the train had been pulled back to a few miles north of Thermopolis. Speaking to one of the crew on site that I recognized and had done work for, I learned they had used side booms to recover the wreck after lightening the engines by removing the trucks. R.J. Corman and Hulcher were both used, and there was a general agreement that both of them together could have moved the mountains out of the way with a couple more side boom Cats if needed. The guys I talked to didn't know what direction the engines would be taken, but I'm going to take a guess it won't be under their own power. 4580 looks like it might get a low water alarm if started.

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If you look at the rock above the track repair and the work train setting just south of the site, you'll see why this happens every few years. On the way through the canyon on the highway I saw scrape marks where a boulder about a cubic yard had rolled completely across the road to the guard rail and been keel-hauled back across by someone to get it out of the way, and another place a few miles north where mass wasting had made it almost to the white line on the bluff side.

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Where and did they detour any traffic while the line was blocked?

MJplanner Wrote:
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> Where and did they detour any traffic while the
> line was blocked?

I imagine the trains that usually run the Wind River line were rerouted via Gillette and Alliance, or (possibly) down the Orin Line to Wendover.

The manifest trains went via Alliance...not sure where the Q trains went.


toledopatch Wrote:
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> MJplanner Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Where and did they detour any traffic while the
> > line was blocked?
>
> I imagine the trains that usually run the Wind
> River line were rerouted via Gillette and
> Alliance, or (possibly) down the Orin Line to
> Wendover.

zchcsse Wrote:
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> The manifest trains went via Alliance...not sure
> where the Q trains went.

When I was there 11 years ago, there WEREN'T any Q trains through Wind River Canyon....

kushtaka Wrote:
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> If you look at the rock above the track repair and
> the work train setting just south of the site,
> you'll see why this happens every few years. On
> the way through the canyon on the highway I saw
> scrape marks where a boulder about a cubic yard
> had rolled completely across the road to the guard
> rail and been keel-hauled back across by someone
> to get it out of the way, and another place a few
> miles north where mass wasting had made it almost
> to the white line on the bluff side.


Hey look, Atlas code 100 snap track!!! LOL :-D

4580 and 4702 have seen much better days. Glad the crew was okay. Could have been far worse.

Chris Bogley
Bowie, MD

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4702 will probably return to service as a Swoosh.

EspeeGoldenState Wrote:
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> 4702 will probably return to service as a Swoosh.


Since its already been a "splash"...

My money is on them being retired. Water ingress, together with the other damage, is likely to have rendered them beyond economic repair.

If the underframes aren't bent they can undergo some heroic repair as we have all seen done even on these pages of TO. The underframes outwardly don't look too bad, but with their advancing age and the current downturn in the national economy, and so many other locomotives in storage, I agree they are likely beyond economic repair and have just become surplus. --- --- - --- JLH

Found that AP News services has the dash-cam footage the State Police car. Very low res footage but it certainly shows how fast these things happen.

EMDSW-1 Wrote:
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> EspeeGoldenState Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 4702 will probably return to service as a
> Swoosh.
>
>
> Since its already been a "splash"...


KNEE-SLAPPER of the Day Award goes to EMDSW-1!