Now last year, a Freightliner Class 70 was dropped from a crane as it was being off loaded in England after being shipped from the US. Well, it has happened again, but this time it occured in Africa. An EMD GT46c-ACe was being off loaded when one of the cradles failed, causing the loco to crash onto the dock. Strangely enough, one of the workers decide to film the unloading and happened to capture the fall. The video shows the fall in real time then slow motion (which explains the length). The loco falls at 16 seconds in. [video=youtube;M5sAmZGNHds]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5sAmZGNHds[/video]
Wow, that's pretty intense! I would guess that's some pretty significant damage, no? Looks to me like the body has a pretty legit bend in it about 2/3 down, gotta assume the frame was bent/cracked as well? That's what we in the IT field call an RPE.... "Resumé Producing Event". A multi-million dollar screw-up like that will cost somebody, maybe multiple somebodies, their job.
I do question what will become of this locomotive. I think it will most likely be returned to the builder (EMD) just like the Class 70 was (GE). However, after that I don't know. It probably will be repaired, but I doubt that it will be resold.
Great video, thanks. It's interesting to see how much the frame springs as it was falling, especially clear on the slo-mo. The frame appeared to spring further out of alignment than it ended up after coming to rest. I wonder if this springiness is designed into the frame so it can compensate for rough trackage without derailing????
Watching it again, I see what you're talking about. I bet there is a little bit built in to cope with rough track, but I don't think that much bounce is intended!
After a drop like that, I'd wonder if it wouldn't just be written off and scrapped. Otherwise, every component potentially thought of for savage will need to be gone through, and probably rebuilt. Returning it and refurbishing might be more of a pain that just building a new unit. Also wonder about any liability on the part of shipper, or port.
Hmm...the shipper points to the dock office, who points to the crane operator, who points to the rigger, who is last seen leaving the area at better than 100 kph...:uhoh:
I do know that when the Class 70 was dropped, the frame was clearly bent. However, GE stated that not much else was affected, so they repaired the loco. Hoaever, they kept it as opposed to trying to resell it.
Ouch, that's what I look and feel like first thing in the morning. Sad part is that GE has fixed that, but there's no hope for me....:crying:
After the Class 70 drop, you would think other handlers would take note. It seems starnge that in these days of computer simulations, stress evaluations, etc. that something like that can happen. I would have thought they would err on the side of safety and use higher rated gear than is strictly neccessary. Or maybe someting in the lifting cables/cradles was defective and had not been noted. I have never heard who paid for the class 70 damage, or who/what indeed was reponsible.
In this particular drop, it can be clearly seen the rear lifting sling failed. The other lets go quickly under the added weight of that entire load. My guess is regardless of any wear and tear, these both were of inadequate capacity for that job, from the start. The rigger should have better known his equipment, or the task at hand.
I agree entirely Ken. It looked the same on the class 70 drop. It seems inconceivable that experienced riggers would not know which equipment was needed for a given lift. ???
