Steam & Excursion > Steam Tourist train -Head-on crash, Almost.

Many of the member here work on or are part of the Tourist railroad industry and should know when accidents happen and learn why and how to prevent reoccurrences.  I’m sure they want to keep their customers safe so they should know it happened again, almost.  Several years ago, the Nevada Northern steam engine with a loaded passenger train was struck head-on by a runaway loaded gondola of ties.  A contractor attempted to move the car on a siding, and it rolled away, jumped over rail lapping derails and did extensive damage to the steam locomotive and injured many passengers, 

During the past several weeks, on a very distance and different railroad, an attempt was made to move a locomotive unit with a backhoe and after the chain broke the unit rolled out of control, out of the small yard, onto the main line, and proceeded with increasing speed toward a returning steam train.  A radio call got the steam train to immediately back up.  One employee, running, managed to climb on to work the handbrake which finally took effect along with the change in profile of the track and the wild unit was stopped.  Lots of lessons here to learn, all over again.

If any reader here knows of any car or engine movements by adjacent machinery and not using a coupled locomotive, the procedure should be stopped and review all methods that will stop any movement if something breaks. A chain can always break or come off.  Any car can jump over a rail lapping derail and the car can continue in gauge and can roll through trailing switches.  Rules call for hand brakes to be checked in advance and then someone work the hand brake while the vehicle is being pushed or pulled.   Switch point derails should be built in track to prevent any shop movements from getting onto a main line.

The FRA is not much concerned about sanders working to help traction, but the sanders better be working to get the engine stopped.  The FRA takes severe concern on anything that is moving and how it can be stopped.  Track skates should be more widely applied for more protection. North America last logging railroad was abandoned and is being torn up at Woss, BC because a knuckle or cable broke loading log cars, which then rolled away, jumped over rail lapping derails and killed 3 rail workers miles away in a motor car. No split-point derail.---- Don't ask, I will not say where. Could it be on your line?
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 18:37 by PlyWoody.

Very well said.  Especially is this important where operations are mostly carried out by (bless every one of them) volunteers who, no matter how much training they have been given, simply have not had the opportunity to gain the depth of operating instinct of someone who has twenty years of full-time experience on the railroad.

Gordon

Doesnt matter who is moving anything there should be someone in charge of all operations that is aware of what is going on. Way too loose an operation there and the second recorded incident proves that and how many more that were not reported?

Back in the '50s a friend of my folks who was night-shift yardmaster in the Mojave Yard was given a no-pay 30-day vacation when a freight car got loose and rolled past Palmdale before being stopped, as I recall...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Bill, I kinda doubt that story a bit.

Out

isn't there a s/b uphill grade from lancaster to palmdale?

66

I think it's also a bit up hill before the drop into Rosamond. Fifties would most likely be a journal
bearing car, they didn't roll all that well. Hell, it's a bit uphill going into Fleeta.

Out

BAB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Doesnt matter who is moving anything there should
> be someone in charge of all operations that is
> aware of what is going on. Way too loose an
> operation there and the second recorded incident
> proves that and how many more that were not
> reported?

The examples of prior incidents has nothing to do with is recent incident. Where did you read "Way too loose an operation there [ WHERE?} and the second recorded incident"?  This is not in Nevada or any where in the west.  I doubt if the ones involved in the recent incident ever heard of the Nevada Northern collision, but they likely will in the next safety meeting and rules class.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 18:45 by PlyWoody.

It's carelessness like this that ended steam on many tourist roads back in the 90's.  The regulations that followed Gettysburg may have come eventually, but it took 1 high profile incident to gets the feds to come in and implement a host of new rules that drastically increased the cost of operating steam.  

Reminds me of hearing a wild rumor going around back then in Ely, about that Nevada Northern accident, that it was no accident, but rather someone cut that car loose, the timing of it was suspicious, right when a NN train was heading up the hill, with passengers.

Perhaps to dis-credit the NN, due to a buisness deal that has gone bad with one of the mines up there, or something like that?

But I'm sure was just wild speculation.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

This thread also reminded me of a time later in life, about 2002 or so, in Ontario, Calif, while cutting weeds between the two parallel UP subs at Vinyard ave xings, I noticed a cut of cars, with no diesels attached, drifting very slowly, westbound, and then right across the xing, with no warning lights or gates coming down, when I saw this coming, I hopped off our tractor and ran over to try and warn the un-suspecting car traffic.

After the cut drifted across the xing, they came to a stop right on the xing.

Never saw an engine or any crew people on the scene by the time we were done, and we had to move along to the next xing to work.

I'll bet some folks got in trouble over that one.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/19 09:41 by RailRat.

Mojavebill wrote:

> Back in the '50s a friend of my folks who was night-shift yardmaster in the Mojave Yard was given a no-pay 30-day vacation when a freight car got loose and rolled past Palmdale before being stopped, as I recall...

As I stated when this scenario was previously brought up, for a runaway car rolling south from Mojave, the grade would change from descending to acsending at Oban, four miles north of Lancaster. The car then would have to roll uphill for 14 miles to reach Palmdale.

This seems sort of unlikely.

Posted from iPhone

There were almost enough details in this thread to care about the content ... almost.

Hopefully any tourist railroads get the full details of the incident (including the full when, where and how). There isn't enough in this thread to start a discussion.

justalurker66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There were almost enough details in this thread to
> care about the content ... almost.
>
> Hopefully any tourist railroads get the full
> details of the incident (including the full when,
> where and how). There isn't enough in this thread
> to start a discussion.

What is your problem with this safety message?
You have more details than you would learn from a FRA wreck investigation.  Why does the location and name of railroad make any different?  But if you learn the profile of the railroad involved, you would realize how severe this collision could have been and how lucky they were.  Why name the company and injure the Tourist line.  It is a major tourist line. Most involved were paid employees and not volunteers.

No discussion needed, just don't let anyone make equipment move without having a secure way to stop the movement.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/19 04:34 by PlyWoody.

I thought this was a discussion forum, not a drop innuendo and refuse to explain forum. (But it is the steam forum, and that carries a certain reputation.)

I've had my differences with PlyWoody's posts on the steam forum regarding a certain steam engine undergoing restoration. In this case he's correct that movements have to be performed properly with advance recognition that without a fallback plan in place, Murphy's law can take charge with unsafe and possibly catastrophic consequences.