Derailment, Tonnage coming in Train forces and Dynamics in Tales of the Jointed Track

I was asked, when walking out of Bible Study.. You work for the Railroad. Yes I did 40 years Retired. Asked about derailments etc. Yes it happens..Unfortunate, and hopefully, no HAZMAT involved. Ya can’t predict a broken rail, that happens, or a car failure, that causes one. I had one. Not too bad, because train make up, and where I was, was in my favor. A set of trucks on the ground. Rail was not compromised. We were re railed, and we took the BO car to Castle Rock,CO. The crew that relived us, went back for the train. And yes bitter cold and an SD-24 on the head end. Now you Santa Fe’s…was a former CB&Q high hood on the head end. We were in the F-45, behind…warming up, after the derailment. That SD-24 never warmed up..

Now here is a derailment. We now have facing cameras..looking outward to the track ahead… What about the trailing units? yep still active.

So this is a Chicago & Northwestern Freight. They are in a Tornado. The way, that hopper is bouncing, I think it may be empty, as well as the 11 cars behind. I think train make up HAD NO BEARING on this, but physics.

So you can hear the engineer blowing the whistle.. And just before that hopper lays over, you can hear it go into emergency. Okay watch the trailing portion? Yep heavier, yes, and how is the emergency application coming into play? That part of the train is..is several stages of braking. Remember, this is not planned braking, and the tornado peeled over 12 cars.

During the separation, emergency, now some are in emergency and braking, some are in emergency, starting to brake, and some just got the signal and going into emergency. How long did that take? 4 to 5 seconds, quicker than me to write this out.

Now this tonnage needs to stop, well it is trying. That tank is leading the charge. It is being shoved, the sparks are from it off the rail, the prior derailment, has zippered the rail and widened the gauge. You see it hopping, well it will loose it’s front trucks. Now they are beginning to pile up.

Well, I don’t know how hard they hit the rear locomotive. Don’t stand up brace yourself. I told, many a new crew BRACE, Stay seated..We don’t know if it is a simple air hose separation, or are the piling up. The way the camera, shows the hoppers laying over, The consist may have been snagged or maybe the rear unit is on the ground as well..

Food for thought

You may have to copy and paste to see as info