http://www.ktrh.com/articles/houston-news-121300/north-texas-derailment-leaves-4-bnsf-13576854 And this morning are reports of another near Bonds Ranch north of Fort Worth. http://www.fox4news.com/story/29024705/severe-weather-tears-through-north-texas-sunday-morning BNSF is not having a good weekend. :frustrated:
I think the second one was wind. We have had absolutely insane straight line winds accompanying storms this spring. I think stack trains don't stand a chance once things get above 100mph or so. Of course, most areas have had over a foot of rain in the last 3-4 days too. Could be the culprit.
Back in the late 1970's, the Milwaukee Road lost part of a train to wind. It was a westward move, crossing the Columbia River at Beverly, Washington. A bunch of TOFC went into the River. For quite some time afterward, tennis shoes were washing up on beaches down stream. I don't recall if the same or another train, part of the hood on one engine disappeared. They didn't even know it until reaching the terminal at Tacoma, when an operator spotted it during the roll by. Winds there are daily, and can really rip in that gorge. After these events, they installed signals at either end of the bridge which would indicate stop when speeds reached fifty miles per hour. As I remember it, they were quite surprised to learn how often those signals would activate.
That's interesting! That would be cool to emulate on a model railroad. I know that dispatchers issue a lot of weather related restrictions otherwise, but that signal would be neat. It could be triggered by the amount of "wind" generated by the blowhards at the ops session. Too much chatter and the railroad shuts down.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article20683269.html Didn't realize they also lost an employee in a quasi-unrelated accident. Very sad situation.
Had not heard or read of anyone lost to that specific area. Only of tornado stuff elsewhere. Some of those containers pictured are well away from the tracks!
Reminds me of that video that has been making the rounds of a stack train on the approach to the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans- nasty storm, high winds, the containers were blown off & fell to the street below, snapping power poles & cutting lines. Some of the well cars joined the containers on the street. Definitely an "OH ****!" moment.
Oh boy, has that one been getting mailed around! What amazed me is there was essentially silence in the car as it happened. Usually someone is hollering 'OMG', or saying something from shock of seeing the event.
