Common Sense - Rules - Stupidity!!

[Trussrod]

I just received this from a RR buddy, it may be fairly current!

This a prime example of some individuals not using common sense but rather letting RR rules dictate what should be done and the stupidity of their actions!


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Unbelievable, the epitome of 'that's not my job'!!!

Life is tough ...It's even tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne


*>*
Good news: It was a normal day in Sharon Springs , KS when a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina .


The Bad news: Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted, letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot molten metal droppings spewing down from the rail.


The Good news: A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.


The Bad news: The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties and trusses.


The crew tried to explain to higher-ups but were instructed not to move the train! They were instructed Rules prohibit moving the train when a part is defective!

RULES IS RULES!

(Don't let common sense get in the way of a good disaster!)

 

[tomustang]

This a prime example of some individuals not using common sense but rather letting RR rules dictate what should be done and the stupidity of their actions!

But it's a union, you have to follow the rules or your fired. UP should have supplied the right regulations during a situation like that on a wooden structure or any other flammable structure

 

[Trussrod]

But it's a union, you have to follow the rules or your fired. UP should have supplied the right regulations during a situation like that on a wooden structure or any other flammable structure

Hi Tom,
That's precisely my point, what they, UP, should have done - 'A great after thought' and what they did cost Millions of dollars in damage to both equipoment, the Trussel and lost wages, pobably, not to mention the cost of the Coal they were attempting to deliver and the inconvience it caused in Salina.

Because the train crew really had the choice of where to stop or in this case even pull ahead an eight to a quarter mile, and get off the Trussel, it wouldn't have have hurt anything and saved the turssel too probably, the load of coal and all the equipment etc!

They had the right of way so that is where Common sense comes into play rather than being bound by rules that in this case were just plain stupid!

I wonder if they lost the engine too? Are the train crew allowed to abandon the train and save their own lives or are they bound by rules and have to go down with the ship [train in this case]??

Common sense - None used here!!!!

 

[Davejb]

I find common sense is in short supply in this day and age.

 

[UP2CSX]

Now, if you want to know the real story, not an e-mailed urban legend, go to http://www.arizonarails.com/bad_day.html. The crew did everything they could to save the remainder of the train and there was no interference from any UP officials. The crew used common sense and good judjement. It was just bad luck that they happened to stop part of the train on a wood trestle and the derailed car was sitting on top of it. BTW, this happened in 2002, which I think qualifies as old news.

 

[Larry]

Those pictures are at least 5 years old.

 

[Trussrod]

Jim, I'll admit I did leave out, and not intentionally, the part or fact the train crew did attempt to notify the officials of the incident so they most certaily did use good judgment.

The individual I received this from usually does check up on this stuff so I figured it to be factual. Now while I don't know where they got the information from there's no certainty that what is stated in the link you gave is the gosabel either!? That could have been stated as such to CTA from an insurance standpoint too, but lets hope that things were as you said.


Larry, I'll admit I didn't check up on the incident to try and determine when it happened or get anyother details. Unfortunately though it did happen, just the first I had ever herd about it and thought it was current?


From the standpoint of Coal Drags we had a member, can't think of his name who was an engineer pullling Coal Drags but which line he worked for I also don't remember. I wonder if he may have been the engineer at tht time?

 

[UP2CSX]

David, I think the newspaper report and the NTSB report are probably reliable. The train derailed because a bearing burned through the journal and dropped the end of the truck on the track. That's what caused the truck to get white hot and start the countryside on fire. The crew stopped the train to investigate, not knowing the derailed hopper was right on top of the trestle. They uncoupled the rest of the train and pulled it away for the burning trestle once they realized there was nothing they could do with the remaining cars because of the derailed hopper.

Anytime I get an e-mail, I use Google and Snopes to confirm it before I post something or pass it on. 99% of the stuff you get in these kinds of e-mails is either partly or completely wrong. I think we have enough problems in this country right now with stupidity and "bad" executives without adding to it with this type of thing. If you had gone to Google and typed in "Sharon Springs trestle fire", you would have gotten the same link I did. No matter how good the source, I believe in the Regan slogan - "Trust but verify".

 

[ChevelleSSguy]

But it's a union, you have to follow the rules or your fired.

And in this case, literally.

 

[Trussrod]

As the old saying goes, 'The road to Hell is paved with good Intentions' and after I did some digging I found out the article sent to me, contained erroneous information which I assumed to be correct - bad assumption on my part! Whoever wrote that up added a lot fabricated info and left out other facts of what actually happened as it seems everyone involved acted very responsibly and intellegently indeed!

In the various articles reviewed there was no mentioin of the UP supperiors in any way so that was the first fabrication and the second was that they actually gave the train crew any orders as what to do. As the pictures clearly showed there was no sign of any cars there after the bridge, it was a 100 car Coal Drag NPI, and the car that had the hot box was at about the mid point of the train and on the bridge at the far side it appears.

When the crew first realized there was a problem and alerted the engineer and they finally got the train stopped, unfortunately on the Turkey Creek Tressel some of the tressel was already on fire so the crew uncoupeled from the cars at the tressel and moved the train a ways so it out of the pictures and used good common sence and not at as the article seemed to imply. Also no one was injured so that is the main thing but the damage came to a little over two million all totaled.

The interesting thing that came to me is that in all the articles, and this comes from the initial train crews inspection of the situation, they only mention a HOT BOX and not as the story stated that anything was dragging on the rail as initially proclaimed in the story sent to me ! So giving this some thought it seems very odd that this situation, a Hot Box, would even develope in this day-in-age. Most all those trucks are probably of the Roller Bearing design and highly dependable and used very commonly as most of the models indicate. I would imagine given proper lubrication every now and then those type of bearings would last almost indefinitely. Also for axel journal to grind it's way through the truck frame as first calimed seems very far fetched as that would have made one hell of a noise that could have been easily heard especially leaving a yard area by crewman there.

They mentioned that a car/s were derailed and that seems more likely what may have happened in that the Journal Box was skidding along the rail and the truck frame became extremely hot? Or maybe a wheel was grinding against the rail on the inside or outside too as it was pulled along. That to me seems a lot more probable.

Anyway, I don't know if they'll ever determined what actually happened as it seems the cars wound up in Turkey Creek, there in Kansas as the Historic Tressel burned and collapsed.

 

[UP2CSX]

David, according to the NTSB report, the roller bearing journal apparently fractured, allowing the journal to drag along the tracks. This probably happened with no warning. As long as the axle stayed attached to the journal, and the truck side frame remained competent, the car wouldn't have derailed. At some point, the heat generated by the dragging journal caused the wheel to distort and finally break off the axle. That's when the crew knew something was wrong. They had to walk the train for about 600 yards before they saw the extent of the damage to the truck and the fire. At that point, they uncoupled the car closest to the damaged car that they could safely reach and radioed the engineer to take the rest of the train a safe distance from the fire.

If this had happened closer to a city, where there was sufficient water supply, the fire department may have been able to bring the fire under control. You can see from the pictures that this was in a very rural area and the only water supply was from tankers, which was nowhere near enough water to fight this kind of fire. At that point, they just had to protect the surrounding grasslands and let the fire burn.

It seems as if everyone involved did a commendable job in a bad situation. I have no idea why some people want to take a story like this and turn it into an anti-management rant. I've seen several variations of this e-mail over the years, but they always portray the UP suits as too stupid to know that leaving a train on a burning trestle, if there was another choice, would be a bad idea. I'm the last one that would defend some railroad management actions I've seen, but there's no point in throwing coal on the fire, so to speak.

 

[Airslide]

I have no idea why some people want to take a story like this and turn it into an anti-management rant.

thats always easiest and most exciting. I remembr this from years ago. I never knew the story but knowing how serious the railroad takes saftey i never thought for a second this was the result of the railroads failure to respond.