Western Railroad Discussion > UP on the ground in West Colton/Colton

Per a report from the scene, UP has a mess on the old mainline west of the crossing with the BNSF in Colton. Three SD's on their sides, lumber cars (centerbeams?) jacknifed to the west. Heavy first responders presence, and hazmat , most likely to clean-up/pump out spilled diesel fuel. All trains using the mainlines on the flyover being held. BNSF running trains and anything going up the cut-off not affected. Could be a set of remote trim engines got away and deraiiled on the derail west of the BNSF crossing, but just a guess.

KC - Happy Monday!!!

Short video out already on that Tube site.  Search  "Train derailment at Colton Crossing"

Here's a shot of Amtrak rolling past the derailment.

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Looks like the split point derail protecting the BNSF diamond worked as intended...

It appears two support pillars were hit.  But looks like they are already sending things above and over.

I am sure that the UP has enough residual institutional knowledge to inspect bridges after impacts.  (Well, pretty sure.)
IIRC West Colton is a MofW headquarters and there could have been a bridge manager there within minutes.
If there are no obvious cracks or exposed reinforcing steel and there is no displacement at the column/beam connections, they should be fine.
The AREMA bridge design standards call for crash walls to protect overpass columns that are smaller than a certain size.
These are evidently large enough to not require such a wall.
As new as the flyover is, it has the latest design standards for safety and earthquake resistance.

Was this a switch job doubling a train at West Colton or some local? Was this a remote job?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/22 13:18 by funnelfan.

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Was this a switch job doubling a train at West
> Colton or some local? Was this a remote job?


Not sure what kind of job it was, but apparently it got away and rolled out of the yard.

Posted from iPhone

Balanced_Braking Wrote:
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> funnelfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Was this a switch job doubling a train at West
> > Colton or some local? Was this a remote job?
>
>
> Not sure what kind of job it was, but apparently
> it got away and rolled out of the yard.
>

It got away? It's not a chipmunk! ;-)

Looks like the usual 3 unit set of SD40N's they use to build trains in the departure yard. 

And apparently it departed.

Out 

Some decades ago an SP switching move was supposed to move a block from "old" Colton to West Colton.
The crew handled it like a yard move and did not cut in the air, not realizing the grade involved.
Their power bogged down before they made it to the yard and they stalled, and the cars started dragging them back east to Colton.
But the tower operator had cleared a move on the Santa Fe behind them.
And that, boys and girls, is how to have a "T-Bone" collision.
So at least this only involved one train.

In the video you can see the flashing yellow lights on the top of the lead units cab.
 

x9000 Wrote:
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> In the video you can see the flashing yellow
> lights on the top of the lead units cab.
>  

Yep, that's the normal configuration. One unit is remote control equipped.
But I've never personally seen any remote control ops at West Colton.
Not saying they don't happen, I just haven't seen any down by the Pepper Street overpass.

It's lucky that it derailed where it did, another few hundred feet and the UP and BNSF mainline into
LA would have been toast.

Out 

That's alot of very expensive, in high demand lumber on the ground.  Shippers can't like that very much.....nor the customers.   Just makes for a bad reputation....

When I saw the first reports yesterday, I wondered if the BNSF was affected.  Apparently not; as someone said, the derail did its job.  I suppose if the BNSF had been blocked, and they had a very "hot" train that had to be in LA pronto, they might have made a quick arrangement with Metrolink to bypass the wreck.