20 Feet.... 15 Feet.... *BANG!* You're Good


Looks like someone either figured the capacity of the slings wrong, failed to properly inspect the slings before use or didn't use softners where needed.

Notice the worker to the right in the foreground. The loco is on the ground before he can do much more than flinch. I've worked with people who are sometimes careless about getting under a load. When you call them on it, they'll often say that they were ready to run. I tell them that they were ready to die! Not to mention that if seen by management they will be fired on the spot!
 
This happened to a GE a year or so ago. Same results, too. 200 tons of freshly painted scrap metal.
 
You can see the shockwave from the impact ripple through the frame of the locomotive. This was in Australia, by the way.
 
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Holy smokes!

I once spent an hour watching a crew load a pair of White Pass & Yukon GEX 3341s onto a pair of flat cars. At one point they dropped one, not quite as dramatic, but definitely an eye opener. I just wish I had my camera ready to snap when it dropped. Eventually they got them loaded.

WPY_91_WPY_99_0n_Flats_1.jpg
 
Its amazing how flexible the loco is. Even before it gets broken on impact the thing is like a noodle.
 
I saw this scene at the end of Battlestar where the whole ship rippled and thought "a giant metal vessel just can't ripple like that". Now I have been proved wrong.
 
One time we were installing a large new steel pedestrian bridge across a little canyon, high above a creek. The crane operator did something wrong apparently and the bridge hanging from a cable swung around and hit the crane boom. The foreman who was holding a guide rope attached to the bridge yelled at the crane man some amazing cuss words I never even heard before that. :D Luckily there was no damage.



Mike
 



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