CARBONDALE, Kan. (AP) - Sixteen cars of Amtrak's Southwest Chief derailed early today and injured 29 people, one of them critically, authorities said. Continued... Anybody have any updates to this or care to discuss this derailment? ------------------ Railroad Depot - Information on all aspects of railroading. Get Your Free Railroad Web Site Today! Railroad WebRing Home Page - 800+ Members! Earn $.50 Per Hour While You Surf!
Something that could prove enteresting coming from this is how save are the passengers when there is 20 freight cars in the train and they go on the ground. Did having roadrailers or express cars cause the accident to be any worse? It should prove to be enteresting reading of the NTSB report.
What's interesting is that it happened one year to the day of the fatal derailment in Bourbonnais, Ill, and if memory serves, that derailment was a year to the day of a non-fatal derailment on the West Coast. What is it about March 15th and Amtrak?
Just the ides of march I guess. I hate spreading gossip but some early reports from Kansas say it could have been a broken rail. But no doubt the engine crew will be blamed for doing some thing wrong. We'll just have to wait and see. Like you said we should be thankful no ones was seriously hurt.
I think the train was heading West wasn't it? I think its next stop would have been in my hometown, Newton, Kansas. I used to be a night owl and would see the train going both ways every night. I miss it. ------------------ Ship It On The FRISCO!
Does anyone have info on which cars were involved? How bad were they damaged? It is too bad about this derailment, but thankfully no one was killed. Andy ------------------ www.trainweb.org/asamtrakf40]Andy's Amtrak Photos
I had the pleasure of riding the Southwest Chief twice over the stretch of track where the derailment happened just two weeks ago. The stretch from Topeka to Ellinor was absolutely terrible. Going west, our entire sleeper car was awakened by the rough track, coming home it was the same story. As a veteran engineer I've been over some rough track, but this was pretty scary even to me.
The worse AMTRAK rail that I have ever experienced was between Chicago and Boston 7 years ago. My mother got bruises right through the mattress' on the bed. The train stopped and let us off in Syracuse and put us on busses. We were told there was problems with the rail ahead .. later found out there was a freight derailment! Otherwise, it was a great trip and I would love to do it again some day. :;
It's sad to say but not all Amtrak trains run on track like you find in the NEC. In fact there are several areas of real poor roadbed and track conditions. I hear the track is bad between Portland and Eugene Ore. This stretch they use cabbage cars on the Talgo sets and the light weight cabs are beating the engineers to death. Amtrak is or has done a study to see just how bad they are compared to the powered units. Only time will tell. I had heard rumors of poor track in 2 different areas the Chief runs and that Amtrak management has some kind of mystery letter instructing the crews to run max speed. I hate to spread rumors but I have had more than 2 Amtrak T & E people say they saw the letter and now it's vanished. Out here in the Pacific north west I hear there is a letter stating that the company expects there crews to slow down and take the safe course to prevent injuries. A much better approach I think. So where are the ruff spots Amtrak runs? We've heard a few now. [This message has been edited by throttlejock (edited 03-17-2000).]
I heard from a friend that works for Amtrak that it was caused by a broken rail too. This however is his opinion, and I know myself that the track where the train derailed is indeed rough. I've gone through that stretch once on my way west at track speed, and I remember on the way back east I slowed down because of the rough track. I can't remember if it was jointed rail or ribbon, but if it is ribbon, there are still joints at the end of ever block for the ABS or CTC system, and if there was a joint on the curve, it makes sense for the derailment to take place there. And because this was in March when extensive freezing and thawing takes place, I say it was indeed a broken rail. But the crew should not be blamed unless the recorder shows speeding. If they have never been thru there, how should they have known the track was bad? It was also fortunate that no one was hurt. -NSBrakeman
Wasn't this the normal route for this train? I beleive I heard they were well under normal track speed doing around 60 I think. Talking with my mom in Wichita this am she said that they still haven't named a cause yet. Probably in a few days. I have run over a lot of ribbon rail track and just because it is ribbon rail doesn't mean it is without joints. depending on many factors a section of track may have many joints that have been cut up and patched and has yet to have good field welds done. But like has been said this is the time of year for breaks and especially for soft spots and sink holes.
Throttlejock- When I said that ribbonrail didn't have any joints, I didn't mean there were none at all. What I meant was that it has far less joints than the joints every 39' with older rail. I agree that ribbonrail could have been cut up, but if it's been cut up to the point where it looks like jointed rail, what was the point to weld it in the first place? But we'll find out the cause soon enough-hopefully. -NSBrakeman
Oh I know what your talking about The UP where we run on is so jointed you would think it wasn't ribbon rail. We also still have a few sections of joint rail here too.
Throttlejock- I haven't..was there hazmat involved? I don't think that's likely. Probably just US Mail, UPS, or other types of small packages. -NSBrakeman
Several of us thought there was no way Amtrak could carry Hazardous material. But there is a list of stuff considered Hazrdous that Amtrak can haul. All I've ever seen has been,Aluminum,beer,juice,autoparts and mail but who knows what they were carrying. A lot of the time the conductors don't have a clue what is in those express cars.
