East Palestine Derailment. Video Shows Truck on Fire, 20 miles before derailment


Detectors supposely are 20 miles apart and this video is about 20 miles from the derailment. That’s a decent fire under that car IMO. That should have triggered a detector at least once. I am guessing it went through 2 detectors before derailing.

Are the detectors hooked up to PTC? I would doubt the Crew would ignore the detector warning so were the detectors working? We should know in about 12 months.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
I have no idea. I thought they only blinked on occasion so the following train could see in advance what they were going to run into.
Click to expand...
Besides blinking, they monitor brake line pressure and send signals to the engineer. The engineer can also send a signal for it to release the brake line pressure and apply brakes from the rear as well as the front in case of an emergency stop.
dennis461 said:
Doesn't the End Of Train Device detect fires 30 cars ahead?;)
Click to expand...
As far as reading hot boxes, I do not know if they are advanced enough for that yet.
 
santafewillie said:
Besides blinking, they monitor brake line pressure and send signals to the engineer. The engineer can also send a signal for it to release the brake line pressure and apply brakes from the rear as well as the front in case of an emergency stop.

As far as reading hot boxes, I do not know if they are advanced enough for that yet.
Click to expand...
Hot box detectors were around for a long time now. This is more of an issue of greedy stock holders forcing railroads to cut back on personel operating the railroad. All this precision scheduling, putting DPUs in the middle, lack of cabooses so the conductor can do his job normally, all that contributed to catastrophy like that.
 
I saw the clip of the burning axels/bearings and realized a caboose would have solved the problem. Way too low tech for today, however.

I am sure the public outcry coupled with the massive amount they will be spending on cleanup is going to be way more expensive than manning a caboose when dangerous chemicals are involved.

Kriegs - spot on with the money grabbing board of directors.

Dave LASM
 
Couple things. The video was from a surveillance camera at night, so it was in infrared mode, anything hot will look brighter than it would in person.

Seeing it depends on how far away it was from the caboose or engine. Seeing it depends on where the observer is sitting, a conductor on the east side of the train won't necessarily be able to see anything happening on the west side of the train. It also depends on what type of caboose, a conductor in a conventional cupola may not be able to see anything going on with the running gear under the train. If it was daylight, you might not see the sparks. If its raining or snowing or there is blowing dust, you might not see anything.

I have personally stopped 20-30 car trains running down the railroad at 30-40 mph with sparks flying from all wheels of a car, the wheels heated blue, because there was a handbrake set or not fully released, where the train had an occupied engine and caboose but the crew didn't see anything.

Best solution is one that addresses the cause of the problem. If the NTSB says the problem was a bearing failure, figure out how to improve the bearings to reduce failures (which is already pretty low) and then figure out a way to detect a failing bearing more reliably.
 
Wern't "modern engines" supposedly equipped with technology to identify these sorts of things? Apparently not, or if they are - like a lot of "technology" - it failed miserably to achieve it's primary purpose.

I am with Dave - you can't beat a pair of "reliable eyes" physically looking at things.
 
Maybe they need a combination of a cupola and a bay window way car (caboose to non C.B.&Q people). Whatever...a disaster like this could be avoided or at least minimized by shipping this stuff through pipelines! Oh, I forgot, pipelines could leak and destroy the environment!
 
wombat457 said:
Wern't "modern engines" supposedly equipped with technology to identify these sorts of things? Apparently not, or if they are - like a lot of "technology" - it failed miserably to achieve it's primary purpose.
Click to expand...
Engines have never been equipped with anything to detect hot bearings. Some have been equipped to relay some track geometry measurements but that is more a diagnostic function not a warning device.
 
trailrider said:
Maybe they need a combination of a cupola and a bay window way car (caboose to non C.B.&Q people). Whatever...a disaster like this could be avoided or at least minimized by shipping this stuff through pipelines! Oh, I forgot, pipelines could leak and destroy the environment!
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter, you can't see that far from a caboose and pretty much by the time you can see something its already failing. Trackside or onboard detectors are much better at detecting things. As I've said, if the crew member is on the wrong side he won't see anything. If the weather is bad they won't see anything. We had cabooses before. Yes the crew found some hotboxes, but wayside detectors found more before they failed.
 
KriegslokBR52 said:
Makes you wonder how far appart are hot box detectors from eachother.
Click to expand...
10-40 miles, most about 20 miles. There are also other types of detectors, dragging equipment, wheel impact, shifted load, cracked wheel, etc. Not all detectors detect the same things, some detect one thing, some detect multiple things. Bearings can be tough since defects may not be visible from an external inspection. Normally the two methods of determining bearing health are temperature and acoustic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top