Western Railroad Discussion > UP WY Derailment?

Supposedly Union Pacific had a wreck with 30+ cars on the ground west of Laramie, WY.  This shuts down the transcon and stops the Amtrak reroutes expcte today.  That said, I have little more information.

Amtrak 5 is on the normal route.


Grain train on the ground in a big pile.

Posted from iPhone

A double grainer (not soda ash) went west by Laramie railcam at 0444.  2 units-106 covered hoppers-3 units-112 UP covered hoppers-1 unit, which would have allowed it to eventually be split up into two trains of 2x1 and 2x1.  There was some camera freezing, but I think that's an accurate car count.  There was also a following grain train at 0516, 2x1, 101 UP covered hoppers.  No unit numbers in the dark.

mapboy

Edit: there were 2 later westbound manifests at 0544 and 0651, but neither had more than an 18-car cut of grain cars.  Doubtful but it could be empty eastbound grain cars that derailed.  Nothing else in either direction as of 1208 MDT.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/20 11:11 by mapboy.

6 was heading that way on the detour, then turned around back to Salt Lake City to go the normal route (along with 5).

I saw a news report last night on the Glenwood Springs fire between Grizzly and Dotsero and was surprised to see an eastbound train passing in the distance.
JB

mapboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A double grainer (not soda ash) went west by
> Laramie railcam at 0444.  2 units-106 covered
> hoppers-3 units-112 UP covered hoppers-1 unit,
> which would have allowed it to eventually be split
> up into two trains of 2x1 and 2x1.  There was
> some camera freezing, but I think that's an
> accurate car count.  There was also a following
> grain train at 0516, 2x1, 101 UP covered hoppers.
>  No unit numbers in the dark.
>
> mapboy
>
> Edit: there were 2 later westbound manifests at
> 0544 and 0651, but neither had more than an 18-car
> cut of grain cars.  Doubtful but it could be
> empty eastbound grain cars that derailed.
>  Nothing else in either direction as of 1208 MDT.

Based on the video of the derailment my guess is the double grainer. They were loaded.

Derailment appears to have started at a crossover with the resultant accordion pileup helped by DPUs pushing. One DPU wouldn’t have stacked the cars nearly as well as three. 50+ cars.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/20 11:48 by howeld.

Have hard that yes it was a double.

1 derailment of a double like that erases a lot of crew savings from combining.

Check out this Wyoming DOT webcam. Is that the pile-up visible in the distance on the south cam?

https://www.wyoroad.info/highway/webcameras/US30BoslerJct/US30BoslerJct.html

Must be on the cam.

The rear of the derailed double grainer pulled back into Laramie on Main 3 at 1328, at least the rear end to and including the mid-train DPUs.  No thru trains as of 1504.  Reported in the VirtualRailfan chatroom that it derailed at Bosler, about 17 railroad miles west of Laramie.  The double grainer went thru Laramie at 0444, so derailed ~0515 as a guess.

mapboy

DivergingClear Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Check out this Wyoming DOT webcam. Is that the
> pile-up visible in the distance on the south cam?
>


Yep. It’s an impressive pileup.

Posted from iPhone

howeld Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Based on the video of the derailment my guess is
> the double grainer. They were loaded.
> Derailment appears to have started at a crossover
> with the resultant accordion pileup helped by DPUs
> pushing. One DPU wouldn’t have stacked the
> cars nearly as well as three. 50+ cars.
>

Once the air goes into emergency braking, which would occur once the train came apart, the locomotives would stop loading and go to idle.  I suspect the amount of DP motors made little difference in how it piled up.
 

Saw some video of it on Facebook. The derailed train wallered down a patch of ground there.
LOTS of spilled corn at the derailment site for the local wildlife to eat. 
That'll teach the UP about running  monster length trains just to save on crew costs . So much for their low operating ratio.

UP951West Wrote:
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> That'll teach the UP about running  monster
> length trains just to save on crew costs .

Probably not.

TAW

The PRR learned from experience pushing iron ore with jennies on heavy trains, even in Philadelphia,  that wheels flanges got in the big gap in front of the frog point while the other wheel flange lifting up to top of guard rail, and the wheel picked the point. 

Heavy slack action or shoving moves by mid train DPU could stress out the train and cause a truck to rise and flange pick a point.  This is just one of the reasons of derailment within an interlocking.  Interlockings usually get more track attention than most of the other main track.

They fixed the problem by welding a ½” square strip on the top edge of the guard rail next to the Number 15 and Number 20 turnout that had the long gap near the point.  That solved the problem pushing cars to derail in the large mainline turnout.  
 

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UP951West Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > That'll teach the UP about running  monster
> > length trains just to save on crew costs .
>
> Probably not.
>
> TAW

I'd say about a zero percent chance.

Is there any idea what the train ID is that was involved. OPR has a bunch of corn enroute to arrive the week before a 14 day shutdown for bridge work on Sepgtember 14th.

Thamks!

Dick Samuels
Oregon Pacific Railroad

brighteyes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Once the air goes into emergency braking, which
> would occur once the train came apart, the
> locomotives would stop loading and go to idle.  I
> suspect the amount of DP motors made little
> difference in how it piled up.
>  

However, the DPU could make it a lot worse before the air went.

TAW

EMDSW-1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is there any idea what the train ID is that was
> involved. OPR has a bunch of corn enroute to
> arrive the week before a 14 day shutdown for
> bridge work on Sepgtember 14th.
>
> Thamks!
>
> Dick Samuels
> Oregon Pacific Railroad

The GSGOTU-20 for Turlock, CA, derailed.  I presume the 2nd half of the double grainer was also a San Joaquin Valley train, anyway it's unscathed.  No Oregon unit grain trains on the line up or thru Laramie in the last 5 days.  Might your grain be on a manifest?  Better call UP.

mapboy

If the train derailed and pinched the air line the dupes are going to continue pushing until the engineer makes a throttle
position change or the air line unpinches and dumps.

Out