East Palestine, Ohio Major NS Derailment

[CM44AC]

NS reportedly had a major derailment this evening in East Palestine, Ohio. No other details are available at this time.

https://www.wfmj.com/story/48310178/tra ... -palestine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9oQGewrtNY

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z5TTZBynyXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esXLPaTDJ2A

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hLmODDW5X94

[AARR]

An update https://www.foxnews.com/us/ohio-train-d ... evacuation

[amessmann]

If anyone wants the timetable: https://davewisniewski.com/bletdiv4/doc ... 202012.pdf
Page 21 per the browser, Page 17 per the document, at the top, MP 49.8 on the Fort Wayne Line.

[CM44AC]

Here is drone video that shows the scene in daylight, taken by one of the locals there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H08iK0smic

[CSXBOY]

Looks like those record profits will go away after all of this. Bad axle on a freight car causing this, third derailment since October on this line according to a local who lives near the line so not enough track work I guess and also had 150 cars total and 50 of them derailed. What a joke. It was gonna happen eventually one way or another. What would it take for these railroads to realize their mistakes? Honestly. Total BS

[Saturnalia]

Looks like those record profits will go away after all of this.... total BS. Bad axle on a freight car, third derailment since October on this line according to a local who lives near the line so not enough track work I guess, also had 150 cars total and 50 of them derailed. What a joke. It was gonna happen eventually one way or another. What would it take for these railroads to realize their mistakes? Honestly.

Bad axle isn’t necessarily the fault of the railroad. Could be a manufacturing defect, or a defect created long ago by somebody else on another railroad.

Not sure why you’re jumping the gun and blaming track for other derailments too, purely anecdote is good enough for ya I guess.

And yeah, failed wheels/axles/bearings will pile up a bunch in almost every case. That’s why the industry has super tight quality assurance controls for wheels. I’m sure they’ll be tracking those failed components back to the batch, and if it is part of a pattern, they’ll start changing equipment out on other cars.

But take your foamer potshots if it makes you feel good, I guess.

[CSXBOY]

Doesn't rail cars have to be inspected just as much as locomotives?

[Saturnalia]

Doesn't rail cars have to be inspected just as much as locomotives?

Yes. But there is unlikely that an internal bearing or wheel defect would be easily detected during one of those inspections.

According to the NTSB, the present indications are an axle failure. And, they stated that the crew had just received a defect indication from a wayside detector.

At this point, I would presume it was a hot box, or failing wheel bearing, that finally got hot enough to fail, drop the car on the ground, and the rest was set off from that. The roller bearings used on railcars are highly reliable, and sealed up such that maintenance is not really required. But they occasionally do fail, and the spacing of wayside hot box detectors, typically about every 20 miles or so, are supposed to catch them before failure.

One question, based on the above, will be what NS' policies are for handling hot box indications, and whether or not the crew and dispatcher were adhering to them.

[chapmaja]

Just wondering out loud. Where is the nearest hot box detector to where this accident happened? Could they have gotten a hot box warning and been in the process of slowing the train down to investigate the defect when this incident occurred? Could the additional forces from trying to stop the train have caused failure and incident to explode like it did.

[LansingRailFan]

Just wondering out loud. Where is the nearest hot box detector to where this accident happened? Could they have gotten a hot box warning and been in the process of slowing the train down to investigate the defect when this incident occurred? Could the additional forces from trying to stop the train have caused failure and incident to explode like it did.

There is security video footage of the hot box as the train rolled by just before derailing. I read somewhere that the HBD is in East Palestine and the crew had just been alerted to it and was beginning the process of stopping the train when they derailed at a switch next to the Leake Oil Company.


Also,

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
EVACUATION IMMEDIATE
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CLEVELAND, OH
915 PM EST SUN FEB 5 2023

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF COLUMBIANA
COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT & THE COLUMBIANA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE


ALL RESIDENTS WITHIN A MILE RADIUS OF THE DERAILMENT SITE AT EAST PALESTINE ARE TO EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY DUE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF A CATASTROPHIC EXPLOSION. FAILURE TO DO SO COULD PUT YOUR LIFE IN EXTREME DANGER. THOSE WHO NEED HELP EVACUATING SHOULD CONTACT THE COLUMBIANA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE AT 330-426-4341.

[R Bedell]

Bad axle isn’t necessarily the fault of the railroad. Could be a manufacturing defect, or a defect created long ago by somebody else on another railroad.

Not sure why you’re jumping the gun and blaming track for other derailments too, purely anecdote is good enough for ya I guess.

AMEN and spot on.

[amessmann]

Just wondering out loud. Where is the nearest hot box detector to where this accident happened?

East Palestine is a detector site at MP 49.8. The nearest DD east is at MP 39.8 and the nearest west is at MP 60.8.
They seem to be spaced about 10 miles apart according to the timetable.

[redcrumbox]

Crews conduct 'controlled release' of chemicals from train derailment

https://youtu.be/ViBWJya8VUs

https://youtu.be/nJyHH8TiKCo

[R Bedell]

I have watched a few of the Local TV stations doing coverage on this incident. It reminds me of the Keystone Kops, doing an interview with a Nuclear Physicist. It just makes my head hurt watching that crap.

[GTW6401]

I will leave the commentary to everyone else.

I'm more interested in seeing the pictures of the detours. They are running everywhere from Virginia up to New York.

CSX and NYSW are hosting detours into New Jersey also.

[chapmaja]

Just wondering. If the Peavine was still active all the way through, would it have been a viable alternate route for NS?

[MrAnderson]

*cough* nationalize *cough cough*

[Saturnalia]

*cough* nationalize *cough cough*

So a one-in-a-billion mechanical failure is cause to nationalize?

Sure, it'd solve a few problems related to profit motive, but invite a whole new slew of problems far worse than what we presently have. As far as we know as of now, all applicable regulations were followed in the lead-up to this incident.

[barnstormer]

[quote=chapmaja post_id=512033 time=<a href="tel:1675665108">1675665108</a> user_id=767]
Just wondering out loud. Where is the nearest hot box detector to where this accident happened?
[/quote]
East Palestine is a detector site at MP 49.8. The nearest DD east is at MP 39.8 and the nearest west is at MP 60.8.
They seem to be spaced about 10 miles apart according to the timetable.
[/quote]

The nearest HBD (hot box detector) that the train traversed is at
MP RD 37.4, and the detector that the train was passing over was a DED (dragging equipment detector) located at MP RD 19.2 when the derailment occurred. From my experience with NS detectors, they do a good job of maintaining there DDs; and with it’s apparent proximity to the derailment (the DED was only 3/4 mile west of the derailment site), the crew may have just heard the alert of dragging equipment only seconds before the train went into emergency. I doubt the engineer would have had enough time to react before an undesired emergency took place. It is a note that there are numerous DED’s on this line, and the HBDs/HCDs are spaced at normal intervals, as well.

-barny

[Mark F]

*cough* nationalize *cough cough*

Hope that was sarcasm. Yeah, let's put the bureaucrats who run who run Amtrak, the Postal Service, the Secretary of State's office etc. in charge of the freight railroads.