Eastern Railroad Discussion > Altoona derailment update.....Trains back on the move..

Pittsburgh East Dispatcher at 853amwas heard talking to an Eastbound NS 22W on the West Slope advising the crew to be ready to receive a Track Authority to take Track 3 East between MG and CP-ALTOONA down the Mountain to Altoona...so traffic is beginning to flow once again on the Pittsburgh Line....Dave Williams



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/14 06:04 by dwi189.

Pittsburgh East talking to an Eastbound 20K at South Fork at 9am....It will be following the 22W East through Altoona......Crews told to talk to Altoona East regarding Stop Boards and speed restrictions at CP-ALTOONA....Dave Williams



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/14 06:04 by dwi189.

22W having trouble with its leader....not loading properly.....22W crew calling the Mechanical operations desk....struggling a bit up the grade...Dave W



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/14 06:19 by dwi189.

Dave, thank you for the updates.

Any ideas of the location of these trains now? And does the 22w still have the Barcode? Thanks in advance!

Posted from Android

22W should be down East side of the hill by now...don't know consist...Dave W

Posted from Android

22W down in Altoona as of 1130am...20K and 20Q following down....Dave W.

Posted from Android

Track 1 will be back in service at Altoona in 4 to 5 hrs according to MOW chatter so should be getting multiple track operation again at CP-ALTOONA as day wears on....Dave W.

Posted from Android

Track authority was just given back for the second track. Signals are not functioning and eastbounds must stop and get clearance from Altoona East to proceed through CP-Altoona.

It does not take long for Hulcher or RJ Corman to clear a wreck site to help the railroad get traffic flowing again....This was roughly a 24 hour shutdown...Dave W.

Posted from Android

NO RJ CORMAN derailment crew this time around. they had a ton of trucks though this morning. I seen them working, putting panel track laid down. Also they spray painted the car numbers/markings on them.

Today's 22W had the bar code unit, the one being talked about in this post is the one from yesterday with 3 Dash 9's

ernie

At 905pm, 18N power is reversing at MO at Cresson to back against their train of 61 racks on Main-2....Dave W.

Westbound 37A lost his dynamics on his first two engines.....stopped on the West Slope to investigate...Pittsburgh East Dispatcher pulling his hair out and advised him he needed to get back on the move if it was safe to do so as he had trains backed up everywhere.......37A has rear helpers to assist....Dave W.

37A still having loading problems after talking to Mechanical, stopped at Wilmore....Pittsburgh East can't use Track 2 between South Fork and Cresson until the 18N rack train is hauled out...

Pittsburgh East mentioned that things are all backed up in Altoona...so an Eastbound 66W tanker train was told to stop at the top of the hill and two helper crews will seat swap with the head end and rear end crews...

The old 66W rear helper crew is also reporting that his helper is almost out of fuel...so they are now deciding to cut the rear helper away and will couple a new set on the rear with the recrew....Dave W

The Cresson webcam view is finally clear of parked trains as of 120AM as Saturday's 18N which was dragged up to Cresson and parked on Saturday evening after a portion of it derailed in Altoona, finally pulled East out of Cresson at that time....Dave W.

Has there been any information as to the actual cause of the derailment? Thank you.

Jim

Chooch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has there been any information as to the actual
> cause of the derailment? Thank you.
>
> Jim

I haven't heard anything definitive....The train was crossing over at CP-ALTOONA when it happened so it probably picked a switch....Dave W.

dwi189 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chooch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Has there been any information as to the actual
> > cause of the derailment? Thank you.
> >
> > Jim
>
> I haven't heard anything definitive....The train
> was crossing over at CP-ALTOONA when it happened
> so it probably picked a switch....Dave W.


But keep in mind that there are a few things that can cause a wheel or a wheelset to "pick a switch". Thin flange as well as excessive buff force (bad train handeling) can cause this. But there are many other reasons why derailments can occur when a train is transversing a crossover.

Matt

Posted from iPhone

dwi189 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 37A still having loading problems after talking to
> Mechanical, stopped at Wilmore....Pittsburgh East
> can't use Track 2 between South Fork and Cresson
> until the 18N rack train is hauled out...
>
> Pittsburgh East mentioned that things are all
> backed up in Altoona...so an Eastbound 66W tanker
> train was told to stop at the top of the hill and
> two helper crews will seat swap with the head end
> and rear end crews...
>
> The old 66W rear helper crew is also reporting
> that his helper is almost out of fuel...so they
> are now deciding to cut the rear helper away and
> will couple a new set on the rear with the
> recrew....Dave W

The DS must be pulling out his hair on this situation. Derailments, trains losing dynamics on the big hill, helpers running out of fuel. What's next? A meteor hitting the work site?