Don't drive into water during a flood...


MikeOwnby

MikeOwnby

Active Member
...apparently also applies to trains. UP derailment in Texas last night. Yikes. Sheriff's swiftwater rescue team apparently did rescue the crew of two.

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Saw that on the news this morning too, glad they're ok. Hope they can salvage those locos and they run again.


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new guy said:
Folks would be shocked to know how LITTLE water that would take to do! Not much!
Click to expand...

I imagine the ballast was washed out and the roadbed was compromised, which led to the derailment. But yeah, all it takes is a steady strong stream of water even just barely topping the roadbed. Saw it happen in a flood here back in the late 80's.
 
They can't of been a very well trained team. Did their mothers never tell them to turn the lights off when leaving their rooms? :rolleyes:
 
The water must not have appeared very high over the rails. I recall seeing photos of floods where railroads substituted steam locomotives for diesels because the high water would short out the traction motors! OTOH, apparently the roadbeds and tracks were not compromised. Photo looked like the waters were at least 12 inches above the rail tops!

The derailed locos shown in the photos were apparently spilling enough fuel to require hazmat teams to set up barriers in the water to prevent contamination downstream. You can see the sheen of the diesel fuel in the water in the upper righthand portion of the photo.
 
I recall a picture of a steam train walking thru flooded waters, but the flood was a calm flood, not raging waters.
 
I can't quite recall, but it was either a Milwaukee Road or Burlington steamer. They were called out because the water was so high it would short out the traction motors on a diesel-electric. I'm not sure how they knew the track was stable, but they did it.
 
You'll reach the journals of the cars and the locomotive lead/trailing trucks before you reach the firebox.
 
I love how they get it right in the papers. The CBS article said that one loco and a gravel car were in the water. If you look at the photo with the article you can plainly see that there are two locos in the water.
 
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