News report said minor to moderate injuries among passengers and crew. About 16 were taken to a hospital. The truck driver was taken to a trauma center. The truck was described as a municipal vehicle delivering water to area ranches. In the photo, the yellow object off to the right and several car lengths back is another part of the truck, possibly the water tank. Three Superliner cars derailed, but remained upright.
July 7, 2023 at Alexandria, VA-#171 arrives headed from Boston to Roanoke. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Still, to this day, can't understand WHY Amtrak paint schemes don't match-the locos, baggage cars, and cars all have different schemes! Is it weird or just me?? Even the new Chargers have different paint schemes, but the newer baggage cars STILL have the Phase 1 Paint?! I guess variety is the "spice of life" for Amtrak!
From my viewpoint, it makes no sense. (Yes. I know, budget. $$$.) In fact, just seems rather amateurish, or tacky.
From 03/23/1978 at Chicago's Union Station. The 610 was not quite four years old and one of 150 ill-fated SDP-40Fs.
Shame they didn't work out, they looked cool! Especially considering the looks of the "techno toaster" things they recently got now, blah!
Why did the steam generator being in the rear cause the derailing problems for the SDP40F? The E units had the generator back there and had no problems. Was it a different type of generator? I know the problem was caused by the water sloshing around on a curve and I think I remember reading they tried putting baffles in the tank...or maybe that was in an article I read about trying that in a ship that became unstable because of water moving around in the bilge/ballast tanks I have always thought it strange they couldn't find a solution. Doug.
I heard the same thing, which is weird cause Santa Fe ran the same units on the same trackage, just full of diesel instead?
There was a discussion on the Trains forum twenty years ago. https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/743/p/139802/1558974.aspx
Where was the water tank located on the SDP40? In earlier years, it was underneath the frame, by the fuel tank. (FP7, FP9 as examples.) That is why on some Geeps you see the air reservoirs displaced, atop the hood. If their water tank was up within the hood, I can see how non-baffled slosh might have an effect. Some of the early SD7 units had their water tanks under frame, by the fuel tank. What many people assume to be 'dual' fuel tanks, were not... Examples MILW 509-511 (nee: 2209-2211.) What trucks did they use? I recall hearing and reading about alleged issues with those. Fact or fiction....
From the discussion on the link I posted, I gathered that the water tanks were up above the frame level and the problem was worse when two units were coupled back to back instead of elephant style. The trucks were said to have inadequate damping and were real rough riding. The crews hated them. Had they pulled the steam generators and water tanks and converted them all to provide HEP, like they originally planed, the problem would have likely been fixed. Santa Fe did that and modified the trucks. They worked well after that.
