@Forest posted:Train handling. How can you look at the picture and conclude it was train handling. As a retired engineer I must ask. Is it a heavy downgrade that would necessitate heavy dynamic braking or a steep incline that requires heavy pulling. Does the timetable limit the amount of power to be used at the head end when pulling through this section of track. Please explain your rational in determining it must be train handling.
There are two posts in this thread that attributed the derailment to train handling:
- Was told today from a reliable (but unnamed and therefore unverified) source a couple things about this. First, the train was stopped on a S-curve which is on the bridge approach. The engineer released the brakes but . . . throttled up before the brakes had been fully released . . .
- They released a report last week, blaming the engineer for the accident . . .
To be perfectly honest, both messages, while they may likely be the truth, are hearsay, and they don't have to be believed.
Personally, the way the cars are lying in relation to the curve, my first inclination would be to say that they are string lined, which is caused by excessive draft force. But, we have no information as to the point of first derailment, which is critical in investigating an accident of this type. So, did the Engineer pull too hard? Did he begin trying to move the train before the brakes at the rear of the train had released? Did one truck of a car derail from a mechanical or track failure, and then dig in, string lining cars ahead of it? Did an undesired emergency brake application occur and cause the empties on the rear of the train to "squat" while the loads on the head end could not be stopped as quickly? And how fast was the train going when it derailed?
These are all possibilities that had to be considered by the railroad in its investigation of the accident. And, since the derailment put cars into a river that is used for the water supply of downstream communities, we can be certain that the FRA, and possibly the NTSB, also took part in the accident investigation, and that it was carefully investigated.
The short version of the findings is quite sufficient for this Forum. We are not the Air Brake Association.
So, each of us can favor the root cause that most satisfies us. I would like to see an official statement about the cause. Meanwhile, we on this Forum have a video and a couple of messages posted in good faith, pointing toward excessive draft force. If the Engineer actually was dismissed over his responsibility in this derailment, then we can be sure there is evidence to back up the dismissal. With modern day event recorders, the investigating committee could get detailed information about the activity aboard the locomotive.
