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Don't know the symbol:

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/st ... 387140001/

Q260

Expensive derail with cars loaded with automobiles. Looks to be right on the curve. Is speed to blame?

I would say probably a sun kink or other track defect. If it were a speed issue the cars would have dug into the ground more. Looks like a pretty low speed derailment near the head end from the pictures. Rail expands with the heat and builds up tremendous stresses. Engine and first few cars make it across but loosen the already stressed fasteners, and pow rail goes sideways cars topple over.

Got it. Now as I look at the picture I can see that the cars kind of just fell off the tracks. I would suspect that the heat may have cause the tracks to give way. Lately the sun has been rather intense. I'm sure that is tough on the tracks.

Plus, Q260 recrews at Middletown Road, about 1/4 mile north of the US 30 bypass. I'm guessing they were going real slow and coming in for a stop, and applying the brakes. Haven't seen a cause yet, but usually it's some sort of car/equipment and not the tracks.

Story from some employees is
Train Handeling caused derailment.

My favorite line from the article.

'The tracks will likely have to be repaired, but Smith said the timeline for that work remains unknown at this time."

They will likely have to be repaired. Really, I thought CSX would simply clean up the derailed cars and then send the next train down the line to see if it would hold. I can imagine the tracks needing to be repaired.

JoJames wrote:Story from some employees is
Train Handeling caused derailment.

How would train handling cause a derailment in this manner? I'm not saying anyone is wrong, just wondering how train handling would cause a mid-train derailment like this. From another report they were applying the brakes to do a crew change a short distance ahead. Could an overaggressive brake application have caused something like this?

From what I see in the pictures, I agree it doesn't look like a typical wreck in which the train is going fast and wrecks at high speed. To me this looks like a rail defect cause the cars to all roll to one side. Could it be a situation in which a train crew was being too aggressive for the weather conditions in the area, and their actions combined with a rail issue cause the wreck.

Slack action is a hell of a female dog. Have all the slack run in on the back of the train and then release the brakes and pull like hell the cars up front will come off the brake first and take a couple of minutes to release at the back end of a long train. The train will start to stretch several car lengths before the back end starts moving which remember may still have the brakes on each car running out the slack adds to the force of the slack node coming out. Kind of like cracking a whip all that force yanks the back end so hard it will lift the cars right off the rails.

Add some grade to this and a curve and boom derailment. If your lucky you brake a knuckle, if not you call Hultcher. The longest train I have ran is only 5 cars and even then you do it wrong and the brakeman in the caboose spills his coffee and bangs his head on the wall.

I am sure the guys with real railroad experience(and not a 5 car museum run) will find faults in my description but that is the gist of it.