From the Toledo Blade
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 24/-1/NEWS
Article published Thursday, October 20, 2005
Toledo derailment snarls train traffic
A Norfolk Southern train derailment snarled Toledo train traffic throughout the day yesterday, delaying several Amtrak passenger trains for hours.
No one was hurt and no hazardous materials were involved in the 4:15 a.m. derailment of a Chicago-bound train loaded with truck trailers and shipping containers, said Rudy Husband, a railroad spokesman.
The second of two engines and the first two of 22 cars derailed while the train was changing tracks at a crossover just west of a Maumee River railroad bridge near The Andersons grain facility in South Toledo, near the Amtrak station.
One of two main tracks reopened by about 8 a.m., but the second track remained closed for repairs through the day, creating a bottleneck that backed Norfolk Southern trains up as far away as LaSalle, Mich.
Two Chicago-bound Amtrak trains were caught in the congestion; each was delayed by about 5½ hours. The New York-bound Lake Shore Limited was in the Toledo station when the freight derailed, and it lost 6 hours and 25 minutes.
The derailment was the second in a month involving a Norfolk Southern train changing tracks on the main line through Toledo. On Sept. 20, nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution after the rear 10 cars of an Indiana-bound freight train derailed near the Hawley Street underpass.
The causes of both derailments remain under investigation, Mr. Husband said.
No pics Matt?
NS derailment Toledo 10-19-05 [News Artical] Update 10-6-05
NS derailment Toledo 10-19-05 [News Artical] Update 10-6-05
Last edited by Scooterb on Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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~Z~
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Re: NS derailment Toledo 10-19-05 [News Artical]
second derailment now in recent times in toledo, and no pics? what a bad time to be away from toledo matt...
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sd70accsxt700
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SousaKerry
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and yet another one ns just can't keep em on the rails
they keep this up and they mighnt just loose the harriman award
two ns trailer trains colide this afternoon south of toledo
WTOL News11
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4011815
check the link for the story
two ns trailer trains colide this afternoon south of toledo
WTOL News11
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4011815
check the link for the story
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~Z~
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wow.. another accident. one train had enough time to stop, other hit at a low speed...but still...
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sd70accsxt700
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Well I will be a S>--------#%*&*%#$^*)_)(&% figures every time I am away from town that somthing happens, hay Zack rember where we first went and sat for a min. donwn that road. thats the road the the fire trucks are parked on, and that is the crossing next to the signal bridge.
https://flic.kr/ps/jSuAb My Flickr photos!
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yeah, i remember exactly where that was...for some reason i don't remember the fire trucks, but i remember that area.sd70accsxt700 wrote:Well I will be a S>--------#%*&*%#$^*)_)(&% figures every time I am away from town that somthing happens, hay Zack rember where we first went and sat for a min. donwn that road. thats the road the the fire trucks are parked on, and that is the crossing next to the signal bridge.
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Update from Toledo Blade
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 08/-1/NEWS
Article published Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Probe into rail mishap to take months
Eastbound train likely on wrong track
Zoom
By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Although investigators say they may need several months to determine why two Norfolk Southern freight trains collided in Millbury Friday afternoon, they likely know which of the two was in the wrong place when they reached the scene.
The two trains collided just east of a set of track crossovers where one of them should have changed tracks so the two trains could pass each other.
Given the location of the trains at the time of the collision, parties familiar with railroad operations, speaking to The Blade on condition of anonymity, said it is nearly certain that eastbound train 20E was the one that somehow ended up on the wrong track.
It was stopped in the path of westbound train 21Z that came around a curve in town and collided with the eastbound train just west of the Cherry Street crossing.
A federal official said the collision occurred at a "relatively low speed" given the 50 mph speed allowed on the section of track. The westbound train likely slowed for a 40 mph limit at the crossover farther down the track, the sources said.
The only alternative to human error - which federal statistics show occurs in nearly three-quarters of all multitrain crashes - is the remote possibility of equipment failure. In this case, that could have only happened if the signal lights telling the eastbound train's crew what to do, and the CP281 crossover switch that train would have taken to change tracks and pass the westbound, all malfunctioned, the sources said.
Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, would not comment on that scenario.
Why the eastbound train failed to stop soon enough, or somehow went the wrong way, is what the Federal Railroad Administration and railroad officials will study to assign a cause to the accident. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday the agency is monitoring the FRA probe, but not conducting its own investigation.
One engine and five freight cars on both trains, which carried truck trailers or shipping containers, derailed. One crewman had minor injuries.
George Vanmeter, 58, of Alliance, Ohio, a conductor believed to have been on the westbound or moving train, jumped before the collision, authorities said. He was treated at St. Charles Mercy Hospital and discharged on Sunday, a hospital spokesman said yesterday.
Warren Flatau, an FRA spokesman, said investigators will interview the two crews and the train dispatcher who was directing traffic on the line - the latter role including setting the Millbury crossovers' positions and then keying up signals telling trains to proceed.
The investigators will inspect and test the switches, signals, and related equipment and review data from event recorders - similar to the "black boxes" on aircraft - on both locomotives, he said. They could even stage a re-creation of events leading up to the crash if doing so is deemed to be worthwhile.
"Typically, when you have a collision on a main line with a wayside signal system, the signals' function and the human observation of them are likely factors," Mr. Flatau said.
Historically, he said, human error is to blame most of the time when trains collide. Between 1997 and 2004, federal statistics show, human error was blamed for 73.3 percent of all main-line railroad collisions in the United States, while 0.7 percent were blamed on signal failures, 8.7 percent on equipment failures, and 2.5 percent on track failures. The rest were attributed to miscellaneous causes, such as vandalism and weather.
What the westbound engineer saw before the crash should be available to investigators because the front engine on his train was built recently enough to be equipped with a camera.
Norfolk Southern also is retrofitting its older locomotives with such cameras. Mr. Husband declined to say whether the eastbound engine was equipped with a camera, but he said evidence from the collision will be supplied to investigators.
Modern railroad signal systems are designed so that two trains cannot both receive a "go" signal allowing them to enter the same piece of track or operate on conflicting routes through a junction. Furthermore, if a train enters a section of track for which it did not have a signaled route, all signals in the opposing direction "drop," or change to red.
Contact David Patch at:
dpatch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6094.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 08/-1/NEWS
Article published Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Probe into rail mishap to take months
Eastbound train likely on wrong track
Zoom
By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Although investigators say they may need several months to determine why two Norfolk Southern freight trains collided in Millbury Friday afternoon, they likely know which of the two was in the wrong place when they reached the scene.
The two trains collided just east of a set of track crossovers where one of them should have changed tracks so the two trains could pass each other.
Given the location of the trains at the time of the collision, parties familiar with railroad operations, speaking to The Blade on condition of anonymity, said it is nearly certain that eastbound train 20E was the one that somehow ended up on the wrong track.
It was stopped in the path of westbound train 21Z that came around a curve in town and collided with the eastbound train just west of the Cherry Street crossing.
A federal official said the collision occurred at a "relatively low speed" given the 50 mph speed allowed on the section of track. The westbound train likely slowed for a 40 mph limit at the crossover farther down the track, the sources said.
The only alternative to human error - which federal statistics show occurs in nearly three-quarters of all multitrain crashes - is the remote possibility of equipment failure. In this case, that could have only happened if the signal lights telling the eastbound train's crew what to do, and the CP281 crossover switch that train would have taken to change tracks and pass the westbound, all malfunctioned, the sources said.
Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, would not comment on that scenario.
Why the eastbound train failed to stop soon enough, or somehow went the wrong way, is what the Federal Railroad Administration and railroad officials will study to assign a cause to the accident. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday the agency is monitoring the FRA probe, but not conducting its own investigation.
One engine and five freight cars on both trains, which carried truck trailers or shipping containers, derailed. One crewman had minor injuries.
George Vanmeter, 58, of Alliance, Ohio, a conductor believed to have been on the westbound or moving train, jumped before the collision, authorities said. He was treated at St. Charles Mercy Hospital and discharged on Sunday, a hospital spokesman said yesterday.
Warren Flatau, an FRA spokesman, said investigators will interview the two crews and the train dispatcher who was directing traffic on the line - the latter role including setting the Millbury crossovers' positions and then keying up signals telling trains to proceed.
The investigators will inspect and test the switches, signals, and related equipment and review data from event recorders - similar to the "black boxes" on aircraft - on both locomotives, he said. They could even stage a re-creation of events leading up to the crash if doing so is deemed to be worthwhile.
"Typically, when you have a collision on a main line with a wayside signal system, the signals' function and the human observation of them are likely factors," Mr. Flatau said.
Historically, he said, human error is to blame most of the time when trains collide. Between 1997 and 2004, federal statistics show, human error was blamed for 73.3 percent of all main-line railroad collisions in the United States, while 0.7 percent were blamed on signal failures, 8.7 percent on equipment failures, and 2.5 percent on track failures. The rest were attributed to miscellaneous causes, such as vandalism and weather.
What the westbound engineer saw before the crash should be available to investigators because the front engine on his train was built recently enough to be equipped with a camera.
Norfolk Southern also is retrofitting its older locomotives with such cameras. Mr. Husband declined to say whether the eastbound engine was equipped with a camera, but he said evidence from the collision will be supplied to investigators.
Modern railroad signal systems are designed so that two trains cannot both receive a "go" signal allowing them to enter the same piece of track or operate on conflicting routes through a junction. Furthermore, if a train enters a section of track for which it did not have a signaled route, all signals in the opposing direction "drop," or change to red.
Contact David Patch at:
dpatch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6094.