Western Railroad Discussion > KCS experiences major derailment in Missouri

KCTV in Kansas City was reporting today that a major derailment occurred on the Kansas City Southern line about 1 a.m. just east of Higginsville, Mo., in Lafayette County. About 30 railcars derailed. No one was injured. KCTV had 18 aerial pictures of the extensive damage.

do u know of any reroutes for the kcs?

I doubt they'll re-route. The accident would be on the former Gateway Western.....couple of trains a day each way.

BobE

It was the Schneider Train, the I-KCVN. Had a pair of SD70MACs for power, undamaged.

Pump

Schneider won't like this news AT ALL. The trucking company will take a big hit, and be blamed for it (indirectly--"why did it go by train?" ), even though it's a RR issue.

Here is the link. http://www.kctv5.com/slideshow?widgetId=40073&slideshowImageId=1 If you know the TV station all you have to do is a quick Google and what is being talked about is available for all to see.

The the receivers wont notice, the trailers will be late as usual. J.B. Hunt ain't the slowest dog in that race.

Mike_B Wrote:
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> The the receivers wont notice, the trailers will
> be late as usual. J.B. Hunt ain't the slowest dog
> in that race.


They will notice if their goods are damaged...

EL-SD45-3632 Wrote:
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> They will notice if their goods are damaged...

Exactly, but the real question is would Schneider even tell them how it was damaged, or just that the trailers were damaged in transit and then begin the necessary claims paperwork.

I somehow doubt Schneider would tell a customer "You shipment was damaged when a truck driver fell asleep and went off the road." The customer doesn't really need to know the specifics anyway, but that there shipment was damaged or destroyed.

BNSF6400 Wrote:
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>
> I somehow doubt Schneider would tell a customer
> "You shipment was damaged when a truck driver fell
> asleep and went off the road." The customer
> doesn't really need to know the specifics anyway,
> but that there shipment was damaged or destroyed.


Lol. You may be right, but you'd be suprised at how much detail is available in instances like this. In any case, the shipper is not going to care a whole lot about what exactly happened. Their only concern will be to made good on their loss.

As to this incident, it is quite a mess, but confined to a very small area. The nearby fence was spared any damage! Line should re-open very quickly.

This incident reinforces that if you are close to the train tracks by foot or in a vehicle as a train is passing, you should always have an escape route planned.

All the containers are steamship containers, most are MSC. Do not see any Schneider containers on the part of train that derailed.
In all the photos, I do not see any damaged freight, looks like they could be empty.

gmojim

As the character of Samuel Girard (Tommy Lee Jones) said of the train wreck in the movie "The Fugitive", "My, my, my, my - what a mess we have here." And I was just in that area a couple of weeks ago, maybe even at that very grade crossing.

The most arresting image for me was the one (about halfway through the KCTV slides) which showed the SeaLand container car bent over in the middle like a wet noodle. I would never have thought that possible -- that side beam has always looked pretty stout to me, and I would have thought that with the two containers stacked on top that there would be added stiffness to resist such bending. Quite the surprise for me to see that kind of damage to a car. But, as I am not an engineer, I just have to look and learn.

By the way, does anyone know the time at which the derailment occurred?

Thanks for posting this item.

MC
Columbia, MO