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Another derailment at Horseshoe Curve

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:28 pm
by NSSD70ACe
NS put another one in the ground at Horseshoe Curve recently. I’m also hearing about a hopper with plastic pellets that got ripped apart near Altoona.

Seems like the TOPS21 program is really working out for NS. Maybe they should work out the kinks before touting success on LinkedIn...

https://www.wearecentralpa.com/news/bre ... HBl07ZKQ0E

Re: Another derailment at Horseshoe Curve

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:04 pm
by Saturnalia
NSSD70ACe wrote:Seems like the TOPS21 program is really working out for NS. Maybe they should work out the kinks before touting success on LinkedIn...
This statement glosses over so much I'm not really sure where to begin. I mean yeah it's fun to poke a little fun, like "TOPple 21", but still.

This is a train building issue. It has nothing to do with the plan - it's all in the physics. They've run a couple of trains which were severely under-weighted up front. I'm sure a new special instruction detailing the limits of putting empties right behind the power in front of a barge will soon be instituted and the problem will go away.

Now you could point to the plan and say it is making these barges more frequent, or pushing tonnage in new ways. But it is easily solvable by basic trainbuilding arithmetic and can be solved without otherwise modifying their plan.

Re: Another derailment at Horseshoe Curve

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:29 pm
by Jetlink
It would probably be easier to just abandon the route around the horseshoe curve. The trains don’t seem to be having trouble in other places on the network.