Western Railroad Discussion > NTSB report: Barge vs train

Just got this over on gcaptain, a marine news aggregator site:

Mississippi River Barge and Freight Train Collide: NTSB Report 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday that a Mississippi River towing vessel’s pilot and its captain pushed its tow up against a riverbank too close to a railroad track, leading to a collision with a freight train and derailment near Galland, Iowa.The November 13, 2021 incident involved the towing vessel Baxter Southern, pushing four empty barges, and a BNSF coal train transiting the track along the shoreline of the Upper Mississippi River. The train struck a barge that was overhanging the railroad track.Two locomotives and ten hopper cars loaded with coal derailed. Six of the derailed hopper cars entered the river. Two train personnel sustained minor injuries. The collision resulted in $1.9 million in damages to the locomotive and freight cars. The barge sustained minor scrapes.

More here -->> https://gcaptain.com/mississippi-river-barge-and-freight-train-collide-ntsb-report/ 

(edited for formatting - character turns got chewed up during the post)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/22 18:45 by jofegan.

I worked that rail line and many times encountered barges ( and even the American Queen riverboat) nudged into the shore along BNSF’s K-Line from Burlington Iowa to St. Louis. Some were of no harm and others were darn close.

Posted from iPhone

jofegan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
>
> More here
> -->> https://gcaptain.com/mississippi-river-barge
> -and-freight-train-collide-ntsb-report/ 
>

Not quite just following their GPS, but really close.

I read the headline and just stopped. Wait, what? Was the train swimming across the river? Was the barge walking along the tracks? After those thoughts cleared, I read the article. Sigh. Not quite as weird as I imagined. But almost.

So now does the train crew get discliplined for non-attendance because they are off recovering.
 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Train wider than the guage of the tracks problem. "We're over the ties but not the rail. Oh, a train is coming." Ooops.