Western Railroad Discussion > UP trains collide near Chico TX on the Duncan sub.

Train collision Duncan sub. Details to follow.

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A few more details: 

https://www.wcmessenger.com/articles/one-flown-to-hospital-after-train-wreck/

Both engineer and conductor were careflighted.

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The NTSB will be issuing a statement soon that says, "The NTSB is now consulting with the experts on Trainorders.com.  The investigation should be complete in the next 24 hours."

It looks like one train (with engines) rear ended a standing train?

There are several quarries on the south side of Chico.  The mainline switch at County Road 1540 appears to be hand-thrown.  The grain train went down the track farthest to the right in this Google Street View shot looking south.

Matthew

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Looks like a switch was left lined into a industry track. The rock cars the grain train ran into are on a industry lead into a rock pit. There is a wye further down the track that goes to a loop in a rock pit where the cars are loaded. It doesn't appear that the line is signaled, so I'm guessing it must be TWC territory.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Are we going to be required to use "Lock Out - Tag Out" procedures on railroad switches now like is required by OSHA in industrial settings????

Nah that's old, currently we're into "lototo", lock out, tag out, try out, a must on electrical cabinets
prone to secondary feeds. I can see the day when every siding on Class1 mains get tied tino the
PTC network, day is coming.

Out 

PTC didn't help hope the guys are ok?

dan Wrote:
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> PTC didn't help hope the guys are ok?

That’s because there is no PTC in this territory

Posted from iPhone

NWRail Wrote:
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> The NTSB will be issuing a statement soon that
> says, "The NTSB is now consulting with the experts
> on Trainorders.com.  The investigation should be
> complete in the next 24 hours."

Some people don't need to wait a year for political appointees
to tell them the obvious.  The direct cause of derailments / collisions
are known by the railroad within days if not hours or minutes of he incident.

It takes a year or more for the NTSB to test the political winds and write
their "recommendations".

Tne above post is true.  If you are management you did not go home for dinner that night until the cause if detrmined and the Train Master made the final determination.  And the cause spread like lighting to the rest of the railroad. 

Two surprises/questions: I thought those mainline switches needed to have derails as well? I'm. surprised that the train didn't derail at the switch - does anyone know the track speed through there?

PCBill

bmarti7 Wrote: " . . . mainline switches needed to have derails as well? . . . "

Since the reverse route through the mainline switch leads into a yard, the derails are located on the yard tracks themselves rather than on the ladder track.  Looking at Google satellite photography, I see that while some yard tracks appear to have devices that sit atop the rail, the farthest track that the ladder leads straight into looks to have a split-rail setup.

Over on that popular online video site, if you search for '04-16-2023 Chico, TX', you should find some video, including drone footage, of the derailment scene.

Mathew

😂😂😂😂

Posted from Android

Reports are that this was a head-on collision.  The three units in the above photo appear to be on the standing rock train (reportedly unoccupied).  The grain train units aren't readily apparent in that angle, but are when viewed from the opposite side in these images:

https://twitter.com/MichaelBeardWX/status/1647794420723449861

malecitron Wrote:
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> 😂😂😂😂
>
> Posted from Android

What does this mean in regards to the topic?

There is a ...prohibition...against using the "Y------e" word.  One poster is applauding the prior posters "workaround." 

Nickatnight

In addition to the switch being lined behind and locked for mainline movement after use, isn’t it required to report it that way to the dispatcher afterwards before another train can enter that stretch of track?

That’s the “lock-out tag-out” feature here. How did that not happen?