Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Derailment in Vernon

KTLA news reports this morning that a BNSF train has had 8 cars derail in Vernon. No injuries, and auto traffic is not blocked anywhere.

Cause of the derailment is unknown at this time.

Where is Vernon?

Would this be Vernon, TX? Vernon TX is about
45 miles NW of Wichita Falls on the old FD&W,
later BN, now BNSF. Oh, and it is isolated
country so not much of a traffic problem for
vehicles if this is the spot.

I believe KTLA is an LA area TV station.

Vernon is located southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The train was a westbound harbor train on the Harbor Sub. and derailed on the sharp curve at Malabar. An interesting note, a reporter for one of the TV station was standing in front of a US Borax covered hopper (an empty but leaked some remaining borax)and said the car had leaked flower.

What kind of flowers was it leaking? Roses, perhaps, or did you mean flour, as in baking. Ha!

Was the reporter Daisy Fuentes, or Black-eyed Susan? Did she tiptoe-ing through the Tulips? Was the car consigned to the Rose Bowl?

"Can you spell 'chrysanthemum'?" "But she got 'cat'!"

When posting info like this it is just a real special treat to have the State or other pertinent info. The basic Four Ws should be used to help cut the confusion to a minimum:
Who
What
When
Where
Please remember Trainorders.com draws a world wide audience. If you were in the chat room with machine gun rapid fire answers ricocheting off the walls I could understand the brief reports. However, there are some of us that go to this bulletin board for information that can enrich our appreciation for railroading. Thank you for posting this info.
An excelent example is the answer from Mr. Browning, thank you.
Just a side note to Mr. Browning's post: The reporter, a so called profesional in the field of disseminating info, was right there on the scene and couldn't get his info correct, flour/borax. At least the reporter didn't start a real scare by suggesting anthrax. Although the conductor probably refused to tell him what it was. Who knows?
Inspector Gadget

Is it the one on So. end (RR west) of Malabar where is ends up running along Slauson? KTLA mentioned cars leaning against concrete bldg & there is one there in middle of curve.

Any mention of what time this occured? Had 2 west-bound stack trains pass LAX this morning (6am)on the Harbor sub.

JJ

jjacob wrote:
>
>

>

> Any mention of what time this occured? Had 2 west-bound stack
> trains pass LAX this morning (6am)on the Harbor sub.
>

> JJ
The first reports were at 1:15AM with 8 cars overturned and the community as Maywood, which is Vernon adjacent.

Vernon adjacent? Now that is something you wouldnt want on your house listing.

This is from the KTLA broadcast from this morning about 0700 hrs. The reporter was one of regulars in the field and actually did a good job. He simply reported the facts and did not sensationalize the story. In fact he emphasised that this was a train of empties and there was no significant material spillage. KTLA has been a reliable news reporting station in the Los Angeles area for as long as I can remember; it's the one to watch if you want news and not entertainment dressed up as news.
The derailment apparently occurred about 0500 hrs and was reported as a train of empty hoppers. Direction of travel was not noted; maybe some of the Harbor Line experts can comment on which way empties usually go. It was on the BNSF Harbor line at Vernon which, as previously noted, is southeast Los Angeles. From what I could see of the scene it looked like what is called a "stringline" where light cars in a consist are pulled over on their sides. Model railroaders should be pretty familiar with the action. The usual scenario is when there are heavy cars trailing the light ones. Another newer way seems to be malfunctioning of DPU units as apparently happened at Caliente a week or two ago. An emergency brake application from the rear as would happen if the EOT device dumped the air from the rear, could do it too. I'm not sure of grade conditions on that line; maybe you Harbor line guys can comment on that as well. Hope this helps.
Have fun, be safe
Doc Jones

118 car westbound (southbound) freight derailed 8 cars in Vernon, CA, south of downtown LA this morning about 2am. I assume it was a BNSF train givin the location (Harbor Sub?), as the news report did not identify the railroad. This off of NBC this afternoon. No toxic substance spilled far as we know. Cars were mostly empty. Can anyone correct/ad to the info I just contributed?

SantaFeRuss

If the train had empties he was heading north/eastbound. Someone mentioned the Borax (BORX) hoppers - they go to the harbor loaded for export.

I bet these empties were on the head-end, and lots of LPG loads behind them. 118 is a lot of cars.

Even empty, LPG ain't no fun, unless they purge the cars with CO2 or N when they are unloaded.

Hey, didn't JB say that all the slow orders on the Harbor Sub were suposed to be removed today? How sad that the derailment would spoil that.

I did my usual nap during lunch in my car on the roof of the parking structure here at work, with one ear tuned to the scanner. I heard the DS giving only one track warrent the whole time - from MP 5 going eastward. It sounds to me like things are still tied up. The curve between Malabar and the UP crossing is about MP 2 or so. There aren't any hills around there that I'm aware of - pretty much flat and level.

If the things that came off the tracks were Borax hoppers, then they would have been eastbound, as the borax is delivered to the harbor at Pier A (and possibly other places that I haven't seen), with the empties sent back for more (at Boron between Mojave and Barstow?).

Kit

are there any other notable freights that head to the Harbor? or the Malabar job.

My face is red as a rose for spelling flour "flower". Too early in the morning and working too long with plants.

The derailment did NOT happen on the Harbor Sub. It was a MLACBAR out of the LAJ and the derailment happened on the sharp curve going from the UP San Pedro Branch into the LAJ (Los Angeles Junction Rwy) and actually blocked the UP San Pedro Branch for a short time.
JB