History of Railroad Safety - Spotlight on current derailments

Ibix said:

onto a third track

Thanks. That clears it up. When In was reading "the other track", I didn't realize they meant "the other other track".

The NY Times has a clear description of the sequence of events (behind a paywall in some cases).
Stuff like this:

BNSF's Yellowstone River Bridge (near Reed Point, MT) is out of service after it collapsed under a BNSF train, and the parallel automobile bridge (Twin Bridges) is temporarily closed. It is a main line for BNSF between Billings and Bozeman. The bridges are located in Stillwater County, between Reed Point to the west and Columbus to the east. One could see the bridges from I-90.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/train-derails-yellowstone-river-prompting-165417989.html

https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-new...acility-plant-shutdowns-in-yellowstone-county

I appears high water (and high flow) in the Yellowstone River undermined one of the piers in the middle of the river. Attached image shows what the bridge normally looks like at low water and before the collapse.

Stillwater county is experience flooding along some streams south of Columbus, MT.

Astronuc said:

It appears high water (and high flow) in the Yellowstone River undermined one of the piers in the middle of the river.

Ah, I missed that in my earlier news report readings today. Those reports did say that they had high waterflow recently, but it was not known if that contributed to the collapse. Still, you have to wonder how a bridge design got approved if it can be so affected by high river waterflow. It looks like a short bridge, so likely only a single center support that was pile-driven into the riverbed?

berkeman said:

It looks like a short bridge, so likely only a single center support that was pile-driven into the riverbed?

I don't know. I believe it was stone and concrete. I was looking for details.

It could have been built in 1897. A similar bridge on the railroad collapsed last year (2022) in Park County.


The highway bridge was apparently demolished, which is why it does not appear in current images of the collapsed railroad bridge.
https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-new...-bridge-near-reed-point-in-danger-of-collapse
https://www.montanaoutdoor.com/2021/05/yellowstone-river-to-reopen-at-two-bridges-road-bridge/

Apparently, heavy scouring undermined the piers of the highway bridge.

Edit/update:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/train-derails-yellowstone-river-after-bridge-collapse/story?id=100356919

https://apnews.com/article/montana-bridge-collapse-train-dbd905bac1b35a63107213db7983bafc

Astronuc said:

It could have been built in 1897.

That was before the Great Molasses Disaster in 1919, after which a lot of regulations changed for the stricter.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The changes railroads announced after last year’s fiery crash in East Palestine, Ohio, haven’t yet made a major difference, statistics show, and reforms have stalled in Congress.

A few key measures in the latest Federal Railroad Administration statistics, including the total number of train accidents, worsened over the first 11 months of last year compared to the same period in previous years. Meanwhile there were some improvements with other numbers, like total derailments.

https://apnews.com/article/railroad...olk-southern-bef9b47b5200f033d2f045c850745e94

What’s the industry’s safety record?​

Safety statistics are mixed for the six biggest freight railroads that dominate the industry — Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific, CPKC, Canadian National and BNSF.

For the majority of 2023 the total number of train accidents increased slightly to 4,845, including more than 600 deaths.

When comparing 2022 and 2023, the total number of derailments declined about 2.6% — but there were still nearly three derailments a day nationwide. Railroads point out that roughly two-thirds of those crashes happen at slow speeds in railyards and don’t cause significant damage.

. But it costs in terms of repairs, perhaps damaged goods, and lost productivity. Severe injuries or fatalities can happen at slow speeds given the masses involved.

How many costly derailments are there?​

There were 53 major derailments last year causing damage over $1 million, a surge of nearly 33%. Norfolk Southern has said the cost of the East Palestine derailment has already topped $1.1 billion, and that total will continue to grow with cleanup costs and lawsuit settlements.

The number of total crashes caused by the same issue as the eastern Ohio derailment more than doubled nationwide last year to 19. Overheating bearing failures remain a small fraction representing less than 2% of all accidents.

I'm sure the East Palestine derailment cost NS a good chunk of their profit for 2023.

Over the past year, the railroads have agreed to provide paid sick leave to most of their workers for the first time and improve the way engineers and conductors are scheduled in order to help reduce fatigue.

Long overdue!

Last year, the major freight railroads installed hundreds of new trackside detectors to spot overheating bearings, as part of their goal of adding roughly 1,000 of those nationwide to make the average spacing between them 15 miles (24 kilometers) in most places.

All railroads will now stop trains when bearings detect a gap of more than 170 degrees from the outside air, and there are new standards to help them better track when bearings start to heat up to catch issues sooner.

Norfolk Southern also took additional steps like hiring a consultant from the nuclear power industry to review its safety practices, . . . .

This week, three Norfolk Southern (NS) trains were involved in a collision and derailments. It's still not clear to me, but it appears that a second eastbound train rear ended a first eastbound train that was stopped. The collision sent locomotives and a freight car down an embankment toward the Lehigh River. Other freight cars derailed into a westbound freight train, which derailed.

Three trains involved in 'collision and derailment' in eastern Pennsylvania; no injuries reported
https://news.yahoo.com/train-derailment-leaves-cars-riverbank-152515091.html


Meanwhile, a year later after the fiery derailment and chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, the NTSB investigation revealed that the release of the vinyl chloride and subsequent burning in trenches was 'unnecessary'. The chemical company Oxy Vinyl was never consulted. First responders, contractors, and government officials decided they had to chose between 2 bad options, either an explosion or controlled release. They chose the latter, which it turns out was unnecessary, because they have a third option to wait for the pressure in the tank cars to decrease. Somebodies panicked and made bad decisions because nobody contacted the chemical company.

After Ohio train derailment, tank cars didn't need to be blown open to release chemical, NTSB says
https://news.yahoo.com/ohio-train-derailment-tank-cars-233142463.html

And so far, NS has paid $1.1 billion, and some investors want to replace the CEO.

Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled that "Norfolk Southern alone should pay for cleanup of Ohio train derailment"
https://apnews.com/article/norfolk-...st-palestine-84120e55a7b7b92eb2fb69b82c3fb3eb

NS was trying to get the other parties, the tank car owner/lessor and chemical company.

The railroad had argued that companies like Oxy Vinyls that made the vinyl chloride and rail car owner GATX should share the responsibility for the damage.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said the crash was likely caused by an overheating bearing on a car carrying plastic pellets that caused the train to careen off the tracks. The railroad’s sensors spotted the bearing starting to heat up in the miles before the derailment, but it didn’t reach a critical temperature and trigger an alarm until just before the derailment. That left the crew scant time to stop the train.

https://apnews.com/article/norfolk-...st-palestine-84120e55a7b7b92eb2fb69b82c3fb3eb

I'll have to find the NTSB report, which should indicate which car (a covered hopper carrying plastic pellets) had the bad bearing which failed causing the derailment. Trackside detectors had indicated a rise in bearing temperature, but he crew decided that it did not meet the criterion to stop the train. The problem is that bearing continued to failure before the train got to the next detector, but it was too late.

Train crews are under pressure from management to keep the trains moving. Car repair crews are discouraged from flagging potentially faulty cars, and not to inspect too closely, and track maintenance crews are doing less inspection and under pressure not to report defects.

Preliminary reports: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/RRD23MR005.aspx

NTSB investigators identified and examined the first railcar to derail, the 23rd railcar in the consist. Surveillance video from a local residence showed what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment. The wheel bearing and affected wheelset have been collected as evidence and will be examined by the NTSB. The vinyl chloride tank car top fittings, including the relief valves, were also removed and examined by the NTSB on scene. The top fittings will be shipped to Texas for testing under the direction of the NTSB.

five derailed DOT-105 specification tank cars (railcars 28–31 and 55) carrying 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride continued to concern authorities because the temperature inside one tank car was still rising. This increase in temperature suggested that the vinyl chloride was undergoing a polymerization reaction, which could pose an explosion hazard. Responders scheduled a controlled venting of the five vinyl chloride tank cars to release and burn the vinyl chloride, expanded the evacuation zone to a 1-mile by 2-mile area, and dug ditches to contain released vinyl chloride liquid while it vaporized and burned. The controlled venting began about 4:40 p.m. on February 6 and continued for several hours.

The tank cars derailed because the 23rd car had a bearing failure and derailed. The tank car owner, GATX, and chemical company, Oxy Vinyls, were not responsible.

I'm wondering who is the owner of the covered hopper with the bearing failure. Perhaps one of the other owner/lessor companies named.