Western Railroad Discussion > Derailment at Rowen?

The moderators of the Tehachapi Live Train Cams are chattering about a derailment this morning at Rowen - anyone have any definitive info? It's sometimes hard to follow all the chatter on those cams, there's five conversations going on at once on the same channel (most of them not RR-related). I saw something about both tracks being OOS at around 4am local, and around 5am they started saying they were hearing radio talk of a five-car derailment. There was also mention of one train whose power was running around to the other end so the train could head back to Bakersfield. 

I consider all this hearsay at this point so I apologize if some or all of it turns out to be highly exaggerated.. 

(Rowen is out of the viewing range of the cameras, I believe, so we won't get visual confirmation on the cams even after daylight.. At least not unless the TLTC folks send their drone up for a look-see..)

LC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/20 05:50 by LooseCaboose.

That's what I'm hearing too.  Cams show trains holding at the Loop and at Cable.

The moderators on the Tehachapi Live Train Cams (TLTC) are very knowledgeable. They volunteer a lot of hours on the sites and yes, do form a very friendly environment and get to know each other with other viewers on a personal level, hence the variety of conversations. You should join in.:)

TLTC drone operator is out of town but will have the drone up at the derail site at first light in the morning!

Posted from iPhone

For those of you without access to the info on the webcam's, 5 cars derailed from a WB at Rowen.  3 of the cars are reported to be tank cars.

Heard second hand it was BNSF train H-BARSTO-29. Three tank cars, one gondola and one boxcar or refrigerated boxcar on the ground. Trying to confirm all the info and get the exact location...


Allen

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/20 09:27 by bradleymckay.

Seems like the Tehachapi line has had more than its share of incidents lately.  Anybody have ideas as to whether they are any or all of (a) unforeseen natural causes, (b) poor track maintenance, (c) rolling stock failures, (d) poor train makeup, and/or (e) poor train handling?  I suppose there could also be (f) it's no worse than it's always been.
 

rdb3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seems like the Tehachapi line has had more than
> its share of incidents lately.  Anybody have
> ideas as to whether they are any or all of (a)
> unforeseen natural causes, (b) poor track
> maintenance, (c) rolling stock failures, (d) poor
> train makeup, and/or (e) poor train handling?  I
> suppose there could also be (f) it's no worse than
> it's always been.
>  

F is your answer.

Heavier, longer cars, longer trains, doesnt help.....

Long sustained grade, many many curves and heavy long loads. I'm not sure about maintenance, it seems like they are always working on that hill.
-Bill-

I am currently vacationing in California and was in Tehachapi this afternoon. There was a westbound/northbound UP stack train parked just east of the Hwy. 58 overpass. When I got to Keene, there was a fleet of Hulcher trucks parked there. Just glancing off Hwy 58, I thought I could see a BNSF locomotive, but couldn’t get a good look with busy highway traffic. There was also a BNSF west/north bound at the loop. Sorry if this had been covered, but my phone makes browsing challenging.

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for the info.  I just drove west on 58 from Kramer to Bakersfield around 5 to 6pm.  Every train I saw was stopped.  The cab lights were on in every lead engine which makes me think there are a lot of crews stuck out there.  

Line was do to open around 19:00.
Train line out of siding Rowen going south. Trains waiting at Woodford and Walong.
Dennis

Posted from iPhone

BNSF 8013 that has been at Bissell all day is coming into Mojave.

Posted from iPhone

bradleymckay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Heard second hand it was BNSF train H-BARSTO-29.
> Three tank cars, one gondola and one boxcar or
> refrigerated boxcar on the ground. Trying to
> confirm all the info and get the exact
> location...
>
>
> Allen



current information is that no tank cars were involved, just reefers and boxcars, I believe.

photo was posted to facebook earlier today... https://www.facebook.com/TehachapiLiveTrainCam/photos/a.277295839488625/604721233412749/?type=3&theater

lugnut4999 Wrote:
-------------------------------------- 
> The moderators on the Tehachapi Live Train Cams (TLTC) are very knowledgeable.
> They volunteer a lot of hours on the sites and yes, do form a very friendly environment 
> and get to know each other with other viewers on a personal level, hence the variety of
> conversations. You should join in.:) 


Actually I do join in but when I do so, it feels like I am being ignored..  and I just now discovered that I am being ignored.. or rather, I've apparently been "ghosted" (when I talk on chat, no one but me can see what I'm typing.. so it appears to me that I'm participating but all I'm doing is wasting my time talking to myself). I don't consider that to be a "very friendly environment" - nor an honest one. Ghosting is a cruel and lazy way of dealing with undesired commentators; if one of your moderators had a problem with something I've said on the chat, they should have told me rather than ghosting me. 

I had a lot of respect for what you and your fellow moderators are accomplishing on TLTC on a daily basis, but I'm sure you can understand why I've now changed my mind about that.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/20 14:50 by LooseCaboose.

Ah yes, just another day of Unsocial Media. Another reason not to Facebook.

At about 10:35pm last night (as discovered by rewinding the camera feed this morning), the first eastbound since the derailment crept slowly towards the eastern switch of Woodford siding (I guess this would be a southound creeping towards the southern switch of the siding in UP parlance - the cams' moderators seem to prefer the old SP timetable east/west directions so I think of everything in those terms); it stopped by the water tower, short of the switch, and about 10 minutes later a vehicle pulled up on the road beside the head end (at night all you can see is headlights..) - perhaps a crew van? I did see small lights wander between vehicle and train head-end (flashlights, presumably carried by humans.. haha). 

A moderator mentioned at 10:50pm that Track 2 at Rowen was finally back in service (with speed restrictions).  

The eastbound waited patiently for two incoming westbounds to clear, and then it went eastward across the bridge towards the loop at around 11:45pm. What I beleive was the same train showed up about a half-hour later (12:18am) on the Depot/Museum cam, the first eastbound to pass there in about 24 hours (if you ignore one light engine move that happened during the day). The fellow who had photographed the derailment (posted on facebook, see link in earlier post here) identified it as the same train that had derailed (minus the five cars it left behind on the ground at Rowen).  It was an eastbound BNSF manifest with five units up front and two on the rear.

Trains seem to be flowing freely now but I'm not sure if the second track has been cleared.. I would stay and watch the parade but I've got work to do.. (And besides, it looks like it's gonna be a pretty foggy morning there - looks very foggy at Cable already -- "Tehachapeasoup", I call it..)

LC

Our mods are very strict on keeping the chat family friendly which is what usually leads to a viewer being hidden. I did communicate with them about you being hidden from the chat and while they do recall you chatting, they don’t recall any reason as to why you would have been hidden. One of them did mention that occasionally a viewer will be hidden unintentionally, but that is usually corrected right away. I apologize if the error is ours, and I have unhidden you and hope that you will participate once again in the TLTC chats.

Posted from iPhone

SP4360 Wrote:
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> Ah yes, just another day of Unsocial Media.
> Another reason not to Facebook.

Like Facebook is any worse then this place?