Mysterious BLI E7 Crash


R

RexHea

RAIL BENDER
You know that sick bottomed out feeling you get in your stomach when one of your pieces of rolling stock hits the floor?

How about this:
I was running GM&O E7, Train #101A, pulling 6 passenger cars to the upper levels and back. 101A had made this route several times during the day along with other trains. Just after the start of the decent and on the return decline, my BLI E7 started to derail and then plunged to the depths below (5 feet); dragging 5 of the 6 passenger cars with it to the concrete floor. CRASH!!! CRINKLE!!! TINKLE!!! :eek::(

I slowly and dreadfully, started walking over to the accident scene. "OH (choice words)!":eek: My E7 was completely knocked out of its shell, the rear truck was detached from the frame, the worm gear and shaft were lying on the floor. The shell had a sizable chunk broken out of the lower left front, including the number board, and there were many itsy-bitsy parts everywhere.

I grabbed a hand light and spent the next hour on my knees searching and retrieving parts. Then it was benchwork time. I first removed the decoder and started to install the drive shaft and worm gear, but realized the truck drive gear had been dislodged from its mounting holes. Now, I had to completely disassemble the rear truck to put the gear back in place. Once the gear had been installed and the side plates put together, there was a bind in the gearing. After looking with magnifier, I saw a slight burr on a couple of gear teeth. Careful filing removed them and now the gearing is smooth again and continued assembly is ongoing.

I'm only a few hours away from testing the unit, but the cause of the wreck is very much under investigation. The track and rail gauge are all in spec. All trains following this event have traveled this route without any incident or hint of a problem. The train was going a restricted speed, about 45 clicks. The engine obviously landed on its nose; why did the rear truck and drive have damage and not the front truck? What happened? Did the holding clip for the rear truck come loose and the truck locked up? I would welcome any opinions that could help solve this mystery. BTW: There were no dead cows, deer, mice, or spiders found, so it is unlikely the train hit any wildlife.:D
 
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Hi Rex,

I am trully sorry to hear that you had an owee on the pike.

As a completely incompetent detective, I submit that this was an act of terrorism. And it appears that the sole purpose of the attack was to kill as many ltp as possible. But, due to the lack of proper training/recruiting by the group know to us as, The Pain in the @$$ Gang, they botched the attack. My best advice would be to run a backround check on your employees at large, you will probably find someone suspicious. And if you don't, do something to make someone look suspicious. Someone needs to be suspected of something. This whole thing is very suspicious to me. I need a nap....

Johnny
 
Having a piece of rolling stock does create such empty feeling in pit of stomach. I hate that feeling. Glad to hear you're able to work towards a full repair... hopefully.
 
man, what shame. they say one of the worst sounds to hear in model railroading is a loco hitting the floor. but anyway, i'll put in my input.

whenthe train hit the floor, the nose probably deflected from making the front wheel set come off. when the train's back hit the floor that must have sent a shock through and broke the wheel set. And both of the impacts must have sent the other pieces flying.


i dropped my bachmann B&O F3 and it landed on the wonderful concrete floor of my basement. there's still a scrape where it hit. it works still, thats a relief.


i'd liketo know how the testing turns out as well.
 
Rex, I had almost exactly the same kind of derailment with my SOU BLI E-7 with almost the same damage. As you say, there was nothing obvious about the layout or trackwork that would have caused it and the the train had run successfully for over an hour before the derailment. After going through the same reassembly, I'm convinced it was one of those burrs on the gears. It caused just enough binding in the rear truck to lift it slightly from the rail and the rest is history. I've examined my other BLI locomotives and found the same gear burrs. I've filed everything flat and haven't had any further problems.
 
Rex- Sorry to hear your rolling stock became "flying stock".

Don't you have the track fully DCC?
Maybe it was a little digital warning flag like pops up on my computer screen.
It may have been self-clearing after the wheels ran over it.

You missed a good opportunity to make several scrap loads out of the BLI engine.:D

I had a similar problem that I detiremined was a loose track nail or the nut that installed the track. Turned out it was both.
I had one loose nail behind one that held the ajoining flex track too tight, it allowed the loose piece to flex up and down.The track joiner was loose , too.

MOW super almost got fired. But I didn't have anyone else to fix it.

Hope you find the true problem!
Mikey
 
FLASH! Good News!
The E7 is back together and passed its road test; including the evil section of track where all this happened. The maintenance crew at the diesel shop worked double shifts, 24 hours plus, to get GM&O's 101 train back in service. Body damage was temporarily patched and welded, with baling wire to hold up the headlight. The entire maintenance crew will all be treated to a supper at Busty Bertha's this weekend and a free pleasure pass given at a drawing.

Johnny, the crew members were brought back to the district office for intero...err..interview, but nothing new came to light. There were some questions about a few flat bottles found in the cab and if the crew were intoxicated when the incident took place. However, all three claimed to have only drank 1/2 of a bottle and were in complete control. Engineer John Barleycorn, said that he was at the throttle while fireman Jim Beam was reading the Sears catalog. Conductor J. Daniels was in the club car and involved with customer relations. No disciplinary measures were recommended.

This terrible and catastrophic event only proves that the Great Choochoo is always watching and looking for ways to challenge our will and sharpen our resolve.


Thanks guys for all the comments. I still haven't any idea of the exact cause. Things seem fine right now and I can only assume that something came loose and/or locked up the loco causing the derail...or sumtum ...sorta :D:D
 
You said that you filed down or off a burr in the gear...what makes you think it was not there already before the crash? Just curious...
 
Rex,

What a total bummer! But I'm glad to hear you got it working again *whew*

I believe I just got a valuable lesson from your event. I'm hosting my first op session ever in about 2 weeks, and there are a few places where I plan to install a protective plexiglas edge barrier. Don't need any unnecessary tragedies like that to happen, especially then...!:eek:
 
Alcomotive said:
You said that you filed down or off a burr in the gear...what makes you think it was not there already before the crash? Just curious...
Click to expand...

It could have been, but the loco has ran smooth and noiseless for about 2 years and I would almost have to assume that it wasn't there before the crash. A guess would be that if the rear truck retainer came loose while operating, the drive worm gear jumped causing the burr.

When watching the crash happen, the loco went right of the track as if switched....maybe by the hand of the Great Choochoo Man.:D

BTW: This was a straight section of track about 2 feet from the exit of a curve.

Another possiblility is the front cowling came loose and maybe snagged a nailhead or tie. This would explain the front end going straight off the track. However, this doesn't explain why the rear truck only was dislodged from the unit. Nothing was damaged to the front truck. It would seem that if it was the impact shock, it would have done something with both and for certain, the front.

NOTE: I forgot to mention that the only damages to the cheapy IHC passenger cars were 3 trucks' holding pins came out, but were easily reinserted.:) If they had been made when I was a kid, they would be in a thousand pieces.:D:)
 
Ken: Wouldn't you know that this happened only feet from where the edges are all protected; over in the far back right corner. It was a very sick sick sound.
 
Glad the loco is up and running again. i guess luck was on your side that fateful day. were there any passenger casualties considering 5 passenger cars flew off with the E7?
 
yea Rex sorry to hear about the wreck but glad its running again. There are 2 places on my layout that the track is about 3" from the edge. Luckly nothing has ever taken a jump to the floor. (knock on wood) A few years ago at a club I beloged to I witnessed a guy running a 50 car freight train louse his engine and about 15 freight cars. the engine derailed over an open switch just before a long bridge. the engine made it 3/4 across the bridge and rolled on its side then the domino effect took place and pulled the cars over the side to the floor. the engine was safe untill the cars weight pulled it down too. I think everyone of these cars landed on their coupler as I remember seeing #5s all over the place. It turned out that the last guy that had came thry on that main left the switch open and forgot to close it.
 
This sorta remind's me of a story I read a number of years ago about a fellow who invited a handful of club members over to see his new brass steamer he had just bought....he was so proud!
Had it running around on his home layout and being new it was a bit of a growler so no matter where it was he could hear it running and knew everything was fine.
Welll! everyone was of course very impressed and after a while retired to the kitchen for refreshments with our proud engineer carefully listening to his engine making its way around the layout.
Wel' after an half hour and several beers later the guest's had left and our intreped engineer walked back into the trainroom and was greeted with total silence.
Hmmm' this is not good he thought his engine must have stopped!
Looking around the top of the layout found no sign of his train' Hmmm must've stopped on the lower level he thought.
Upon crawling under the layout found the train at the lowest part of the layout sitting quitely on the track but Horror's of Horror's.......no new shiny brass locomotive' just the dozen or so box cars and one very lonley caboose. OH'MY GOD! it must've hit the floor!!!!
Frantically looking around found no sight of his prize' no where! check every square inch of floor space and of the layout.........no brass locomotive.

By this time getting a little crazy and having some very unchristian like thoughts about a certain group of so called friends decides he'll confront them at the very next club meetingabout the location of his engine.

Next day a Saturday his wife doing the laundry......... look's in her laundry basket and there nestled amongest the dirty colthes was one...very...shiny... brass locomotive &tender' and not a scratch on it.
Imagine a large garage layout and the one place something went wrong was the very spot it just had to be. Now thats what I would call Divine intervention :D
 
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GN2680: That's a good story. I can feel his relief. :D

I've been lucky over the years, but still had 3 go over and to the floor back when I was still getting my track installed right. My Challenger fell about 6 feet to the concrete, but glanced off a cardboard box first. Very minor damage and one small scratch on the tender. That's when I put up guards around the incline...except for the area with the GM&O :eek: LOL. It always amazes me how much these little guys can take.

I put the shell back together on the GM&O, but I will have to nickname the loco "Scarface". That will go along with the "Green Hornet", "Little Toot", "Big-un", and some..uh..private names.:D
 
reminds me of the BLI J-class I scored off here... was demoing in on a shelf for the wife and the power pack was acting up... left the throttle at about 30 while I fiddled with the wires... wife yelped, and I instinctively put my hands up... just to have the J-class and tender drop right into them. The shelf was about 5 feet or more from the floor....
 
enjineerbill said:
My best advice would be to run a backround check on your employees at large, you will probably find someone suspicious.
Click to expand...

Time to bring in the "Local Police" of the layout to solve this crime.
Maybe even snap a picture or two of the crime scene for the November 2008 Photo Contest.....:D
 
I wonder if I could get a new BLI GM&O painted shell??

Good reaction time V&AL.

OLD97, the District Super has vowed that someone will pay, but the Union has denied any claims of operator error linked to alcohol or inexperience. They stated that a malfunction in the thingy or the do-dad must have caused the you-know to separate and create a somethun or nother.
 
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