Western Railroad Discussion > Tacoma BNSF String Line Derailment

BNSF's PASSEA train stringlined a few empty centerbeams in the Head of Bay curve in downtown Tacoma yesterday afternoon. Probably all cleaned up by now or will be by daybreak.

The train was on the Tacoma main and derailed cars blocked the Dock lead.

Here are some images.  Enjoy.

 

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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Hulcher was already on scene when I made these images.  
 

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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Trains were still moving past the site.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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But the instructions on the Walthers box said minimum of 22 degree radius curve.....

I think I've replicated this a time or two on my layout!

Thanks for posting!

Andy/Metamora, IL

Hahaha...one load in the middle of a bunch of empties. What could possibly go wrong?

flippin77 Wrote:
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> But the instructions on the Walthers box said
> minimum of 22 degree radius curve.....
>
> I think I've replicated this a time or two on my
> layout!
>
> Thanks for posting!
>
> Andy/Metamora, IL

Haven't we all

The railroads have rules about train make up to prevent things like this from happening. It seems yardmasters have authority to throw all the make up rules out the window in lieu of blocking rules. Woe be the crew who points the make up violation. He will be directed to leave.

That Pasco make up is a good clue there was too much tonnage behind the string of empty centerbeams.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/15 07:19 by fbe.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Hahaha...one load in the middle of a bunch of
> empties. What could possibly go wrong?

I've heard of a BNSF case where there was a failure to follow blocking instructions and every crew over several subdivisions was cited for not noticing it in their train.  Another reason why new crews just don't hop on a train and go.  They're not stalling, they want to look over the train make up, along with many other things.

mapboy

This was a newer engineer with a big head end consist who didnt let the train brakes brakes pump up and release all the way and make sure the rear was released good enough before he started to pull on them and layed them over in the middle abouts. 

fbe Wrote:
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> The railroads have rules about train make up to
> prevent things like this from happening. It seems
> yardmasters have authority to throw all the make
> up rules out the window in lieu of blocking rules.


In Olden Tymes, train makeup and blocking was the responsibility of the Chief Dispatcher. We would get blocks and counts on hand. We then worked up a train properly built for makeup and blocking, including how to pick up at each stop. We had to consider the en route pickups and setouts, the handling off the division to the destination, and handling at the destination - and build accordingly. then we'd stick out a wire for the planned train - roundhouse, yards, the chief on one or more ensuing divisions, HQ, and the train crew.

In the 80s, several of us were told to stop putting so much effort into running trains...we were making it impossible to cut jobs. Almost all of the experienced chiefs in Seattle bid into trick jobs simultaneously...and disqualified ourselves for chiefing assignments.

TAW

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The railroads have rules about train make up to
> prevent things like this from happening. It seems
> yardmasters have authority to throw all the make
> up rules out the window in lieu of blocking rules.
> Woe be the crew who points the make up violation.
> He will be directed to leave.
>
> That Pasco make up is a good clue there was too
> much tonnage behind the string of empty
> centerbeams.
>
> Posted from iPhone

I can't speak for other railroads, but on the UP yardmasters don't have any authority to override the rules set forth by the SSI and timetable. It is possible that switch crews aren't verifying their lists as trains are built and what everyone thinks is a legal train isn't. Also, in-route pick ups can make proper blocking tricky. Especially on subdivisions with elaborate train make up restrictions.

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The railroads have rules about train make up to
> prevent things like this from happening. It seems
> yardmasters have authority to throw all the make
> up rules out the window in lieu of blocking rules.
> Woe be the crew who points the make up violation.
> He will be directed to leave.
>
> That Pasco make up is a good clue there was too
> much tonnage behind the string of empty
> centerbeams.
>
> Posted from iPhone
===================================================
Not uncommon for Pasco, at least up until mid-2008.  Many a time we had to make some moves, prior to departing, in order to comply with train make-up requirements.  The competent conductors would also physically check out the wheel against the consist, which often saved additional grief down the road, such as setting an errant scale test car out at Connell.  Even with trip rates, I made a lot of overtime without even trying, thanks to the Pasco follies. 

Interesting pics!! Thanks for sharing.

a good size cut of lightweight cars such as empty beams/flats/gons between loads in the middle of a train consist multipled by sharp curvature = well the photos are the result ...

Thank you for the excellent coverage.
John

I'm only surprised that this doesn't happen more often.
Ron W

You are correct, they don't have written authority but there seems no penalty when they ignore the requirements of the special instructions. Getting the train out of the terminal seems more important than the risk of stringlining on the road, at least to the yardmaster.

Posted from iPhone

Many times we are ordered to take the train as is or get written up for insubordination.
On the other end of the spectrum maybe the new hogger didn't know to let rear charge up enough before he started pulling.
I feel sorry for the engineer because they'll blame it all on him or her.

Posted from Android

espeefan Wrote:
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> Many times we are ordered to take the train as is
> or get written up for insubordination.
> On the other end of the spectrum maybe the new
> hogger didn't know to let rear charge up enough
> before he started pulling.
> I feel sorry for the engineer because they'll
> blame it all on him or her.
>
> Posted from Android

And thats how it always falls rules ignored by them company on down but the guy who has no say in the matter gets the blame
 

      Whatever the industry or business is these days, we are seeing more and more incompetent employees who have no common sence, cannot see the forest for the trees but are excellent at reading a safety manual written by people who have never done the job, AND believing every word of it. If they have an order to set the switch half way so they can switch faster, some would gladly do it and then scream that it is not their fault - they were told too.      Had a crew here years ago that ran through a facing point derail and screamed for hours that they didn't do it, it was somebody else's fault, the sun was in their eyes, their car ran out of gas, the dog ate their homework, yap, yap, yap on and on.