International Railroad Discussion > Western Australia derailment today

Possibly the biggest derailment in the history of railroading

A 42000 tonne 2.8km train intentially derailed to avoid colliding with a preceding train

• Train takes off at 120 km an hour for 92 km
• No injuries, driver had temporarily stepped off train
• Incident happened in remote area of Western Australia
• Will raise concerns about miners' plan to use driverless trains

(Recasts lede after BHP confirms rail operations suspended, adds details, background)BHP Billiton (BHP) BLT.L said it had suspended all its iron ore rail operations in Western Australia on Monday after a train ran away at high speed for nearly 100 kilometres before being forcibly derailed.No one was injured and the train, loaded with iron ore, was travelling in a remote area. However, operations would be suspended while an investigation was underway, a spokeswoman for BHP, the world's biggest miner, confirmed.The Australian newspaper had earlier reported that BHP had suspended rail operations in the region after the incident.The train, which was running on BHP's private Mount Newman railway line, took off while the driver, the only person on the train, had temporarily stepped off the locomotive to an inspect an issue with a wagon.The train ran for 92 kilometres at around 100 kilometres an hour, Reuters calculations show.The accident is likely to raise safety concerns about miners' plans to bring driverless trains to Australia's iron ore heartland. Rival Rio Tinto RIO.L (RIO) made its first iron ore delivery by autonomous train in July.The Mount Newman railway line carries ore from Newman in Australia's iron ore-rich Pilbara to Port Hedland across a remote 426 kilometres and is one of Australia’s longest private railways.Australia's transport authority said it was investigating the incident."A Western Australia iron ore train has been derailed near Turner River on route to Port Hedland this morning," BHP said in a statement."No one has been injured. We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the situation."The damage to the train was "substantial", The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report.BHP said that the train began to move at 0440 am while the driver was out conducting an inspection, before the train was intentionally derailed after about 90 km at about 0530 am."At approximately 0440 on 5 November 2018, the driver of a loaded ore train consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons stopped at the 211 km point. The driver alighted from the locomotive to inspect an issue with a wagon," BHP said in a statement.While the driver was outside of the locomotive, the train took off. "With no one on board, the train travelled for 92 km until ... the train was deliberately derailed at a set of points operated by the control centre, about 119 km from Port Hedland," the transport safety bureau said.The speed and distance suggest the train was travelling at around 180 kilometres an hour

Was this a remote controlled train?  Or, was it a one man train with just the engineer operating it?

tomstp Wrote:
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> Was this a remote controlled train?  Or, was it a
> one man train with just the engineer operating it?

Read the post.

Sounds like the issue is more of one person crew rather than remote control.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
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> Sounds like the issue is more of one person crew
> rather than remote control.

^^^THIS^^^

Need a photo - that's gotta be a big mess!

PHAL, I did read it.  They started out the remote control with one man riding along as safety thing in case something went wrong.  But, in the case it sounded like the engineer was in charge and still something went wrong and neither of us know right now exactly what was the case.  

Reading some Australian comments about this issue, I note they have a device at locations where the trains are yarded which places the train brakes in emergency if there is any movement while the train is unattended. Whether it is simply a bumping post with an air hose connection, or whether it has telemetry to activate the train brakes electronically I don't know.

However, this event happened en route.

 

tomstp Wrote:
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> PHAL, I did read it.  They started out the remote
> control with one man riding along as safety thing
> in case something went wrong.  But, in the case
> it sounded like the engineer was in charge and
> still something went wrong and neither of us know
> right now exactly what was the case.  

Related...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster

TAW

Gee, 1.74 miles long. I wonder how many cars that was? Never mind I saw the newspaper article 268 cars long.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/18 17:05 by Bob3985.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHAL, I did read it.  They started out the remote
> control with one man riding along as safety thing
> in case something went wrong.  But, in the case
> it sounded like the engineer was in charge and
> still something went wrong and neither of us know
> right now exactly what was the case.  

Rio Tinto is the one with the remote controlled trains, this was BHP which still has the one person crews.
All per the first post in this thread...

Video

https://www.facebook.com/groups/105808956224305/permalink/1242463945892128/

Photos
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156991667913699&set=p.10156991667913699&type=3&theater&ifg=1
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156991667523699&set=p.10156991667523699&type=3&theater&ifg=1

There have been some equally bad pile ups on the Sishen–Saldanha line in south Africa, where train length was recently lengthened to 375 wagons https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/look-transnet-runs-record-breaking-4km-long-production-train-17436692


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/18 00:06 by jmt.

jmt Wrote:
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> There have been some equally bad pile ups on the
> Sishen–Saldanha line in south Africa, where
> train length was recently lengthened to 375 wagons
> https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/look-transnet-runs
> -record-breaking-4km-long-production-train-1743669
> 2

I spent 20 months there working on that problem. Five years or so ago, they were having big smokin' train wrecks about weekly.

TAW

Some pics of the BHP wreck here......https://www.9news.com.au/2018/11/06/06/34/bhp-runaway-train-derailed-in-wa
Regards,dK

Thanks for the link, don't do FacePlant.

DKay Wrote:
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> Some pics of the BHP wreck
> here......https://www.9news.com.au/2018/11/06/06/3
> 4/bhp-runaway-train-derailed-in-wa
> Regards,dK

I received these pic from friends that found them in the net.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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A video explaining the derailment.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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pedrop Wrote:
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> A video explaining the derailment.
Thanks Pedro.Looks like BHP will be in the market for some new power.
Regards,dK

Now go pee in the cup...

William Jeffers, P.E.
San Dimas, CA

I thought BHP scrapped all of their AC6000s? There's one amid that wreckage...