Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS 15R rips covered hopper apart.

There is a neat video over on youtube where NS train 15R leaving Chester, SC has some slack action while pulling hard that rips the end out of a covered hopper. Search "NS 15R Derails" to find it. A railfan just happened to be taking video of the train going past a crossing when the action happened just behind him. I believe the video was taken on Friday.

Ted Curphey
Cheney, WA

That was cool----thanks!

Cool

Thank you for the heads-up.  Didn't expect to see that.  Also fortunate that it didn't happen 15 seconds earlier at the grade crossing!

Precision Railroading at its' best, as it probably caused too much strain on the hopper car.  That would be my guess..
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Doesn't always have to be a monster train. This happened with just a 30 car track. 

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ClubCar Wrote:
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> Precision Railroading at its' best, as it probably
> caused too much strain on the hopper car.  That
> would be my guess..
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

The car should be up to the stress...but it's a privately owned hopper and ALL of these are falling apart...mark my words, these non railroad owned cars are going to be a huge problem in the near future. They are turning into powder....

The drop in capital investment into coal mining and coal infrastructure is a huge problem across the board.

Nobody wants to put good money into an industry that might be gone in five years.

Of course, when a company shares are selling for three years earnings, that's a bet worth considering for some folks.

Posted from Android

QUICK! Somebody get that guy a tripod.
/Ted

OHRY Wrote:
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> Doesn't always have to be a monster train. This
> happened with just a 30 car track. 

Impressive!

I sometimes question the engineering that went into the garbage spins cars. Once around 2010-ish we were out in Gallitzen and a garbage spine car split like that just east on the tunnels on its westbound climb, clogged up the works for hours.

Dan

Posted from iPhone

dschlegel Wrote:
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> OHRY Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Doesn't always have to be a monster train. This
> > happened with just a 30 car track. 
>
> Impressive!
>
> I sometimes question the engineering that went
> into the garbage spins cars. Once around 2010-ish
> we were out in Gallitzen and a garbage spine car
> split like that just east on the tunnels on its
> westbound climb, clogged up the works for hours.
>
> Dan
>
> Posted from iPhone

I believe this particular type of car has since been banned on the NS due to these types of failures. This was not an isolated incident and it occurred several times on the mainline that I know of. The 18G ripped one just east of Bethlehem and another ripped at Hershey. There were a few more that occurred down south too.

They were old bathtub coal hoppers repurposed for scrap loading and they took a beating. Eventually they just got wore out and developed cracks in the side sills that were the main structural component of the car. All they needed was a good yank and that was it!

Posted from Android

management: who last inspected that car?, any other time, your getting a hearing if it's not a real cripple!!!