Train derailments-

[Penn]

Trains seem to be leaving the track on a regular schedule. From 2011-2013 about 2per month. 2014 doesn't appear to be normal; helping hands perhaps?

2014[edit]
7 January 2014 —
Canada — A CN train carrying crude oil and propane derails near Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. The resulting fire forces an evacuation of the area within a two-kilometre radius. No injuries are reported.[229][230]United States — A CTA Yellow Line passenger train derails in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The two-car train derailed in the early afternoon, briefly disrupting late afternoon rush hour traffic. No injuries were reported.[231]

13 January 2014 — United States - A BNSF train derails near Kent, Washington after a landslide. The landslide also disrupted Amtrak and Sound Transit passenger rail service.[232]

17 January 2014 —United States — A BNSF train hauling fruits, vegetables and empty intermodal cars derails near Williston, North Dakota. The derailment also disrupted Amtrak passenger rail service between Minot, North Dakota and Havre, Montana. No injuries were reported.[233]United States — A CSX train carrying coal derails near Dunnellon, Florida. Twelve cars of the 100-car train derailed in a rural area. The train was transporting the coal to the Duke Energy Crystal River Energy Complex. No injuries were reported.[234]19

January 2014 — United States - A Union Pacific train carrying coal derails near Caledonia, Wisconsin. Nineteen cars of the 135-car train derailed. The cause is believed to be cracked rails caused by unusually cold winter conditions. No injuries were reported.[235]

20 January 2014 — United States - A CSX train carrying crude oil derails in Philladelphia, Pennsylvania. Seven cars of a 101-car train derailed on a bridge over the Schuylkill Expressway, causing the road to be shut down for brief periods of time as emergency crews drained the tankers. No injuries were reported.[236]

22 January 2014 — United States - A BNSF train transporting 18 empty intermodal rail cars derails inside the Lindenwood Yard in St. Louis, Missouri. No injuries were reported and the derailment was cleared the same day.[237]

23 January 2014 — United States - A BNSF train carrying corn derails near Ross, North Dakota. The derailment of eleven cars disrupted transportation of crude oil from the Bakken oil formation to ports in Montana. No injuries were reported.[238]

25 January 2014 — United States - A Union Pacific freight train derails near Morrow, Louisiana. No injuries were reported, and no chemical or hazardous materials were reported as spilled.[239]

27 January 2014 —
Canada — A CN train hauling liquefied petroleum gas, clay, and automobiles derails near the Saint-Basile community of Edmunston, New Brunswick. Five cars left the tracks, three carrying automobiles, and one each of LPG and clay. No injuries were reported.[240]United States — A Union Pacific train carrying scrap paper derails near Pollard Flat, California. Only one box car in the four-car train was carrying cargo, with no cargo spillage. The derailment caused disruption to Amtrack passenger rail service, resulting in riders being transported via buses between Oregon and California.[241]

28 January 2014 —
United States — A CN train carrying plastic pellets derails near Mundelein, Illinois. One set of wheels on a hopper in a 110-car train derailed on a single lane track, resulting in disruptions of service over two days for several passenger and freight services as trains needed to be rerouted.[242]United States — A CSX train carrying phosphoric acid derails near McDavid, Florida. 23 of the 69 cars derailed, resulting in the destruction of the tracks and bridge over Fletcher Creek, and chemicals leaking into the water. No injuries were reported.[243]

30 January 2014 — United States - A NS train transporting 179 empty coal cars derailed near Jewell Ridge, Virginia. No injuries were reported, and the accident was cleared on the same day.[244]

31 January 2014 — United States - A CN train carrying crude oil, methane and liquid fertilizer derails near New Agusta, Mississippi. 18 to 24 cars of the 85-car train derailed and began leaking. The derailment occurred in a rural area, but resulted in 12 families being evacuated and four lanes of U.S. 98 closed as emergency responders began to clean up the spill. No injuries

[Trapper John]

Interesting, but derailments per month is probably not the right metric for comparison. Maybe derailments per 100,000 miles traveled would be a better metric for comparisons. Total train miles may be significantly up due to increased domestic oil, coal, and gas production. Stress on the rail beds due to increased traffic, aging of the rail infrastructure, and not being able to handle the increased traffic could have a lot to do with it too. But then again....

[mojaveman]

Wouldn't be that hard for a terrorist to do. All it would take to derail a train would be a small team of about four strong men equipped with a backpack acetelyne torch and a few large pry bars. Find an ideal location at a curve in the tracks, cut spikes with torch, move rails just a few inches and immediate disaster. Worse yet if they did some intel work and found a train carrying hazardous chemicals.

[Team Sergeant]

All it would take to derail a train would be a small team of about four strong men equipped with a backpack acetelyne torch and a few large pry bars. Find ideal location at a curve in the tracks, cut spikes with torch, move rails just a few inches and immediate disaster. Worse yet if they did some intel work and found a train carrying dangerous chemicals.

You telling the "professionals" how to do it? :munchin This sort of work is in our job description and mission statement.....

[atticus finch]

"helping hands?" In a word, no. This is relatively normal operation in terms of derailments given all the factors involved. I can speak on this from personal experience.

[JimP]

You telling the "professionals" how to do it? :munchin This sort of work is in our job description and mission statement.....

Was going to say that it is a hell of a lot easier than all that... :D

Learned a lot on a tour of the railhead out in st Louis. Did you know these cars are NOT attached to the wheels? Makes sense as younactually WANT them to roll off the carriage once the center of gravity is exceeded. This will prevent dragging all the other cars off with them. Pretty smart but a bit scary when explained.

Also, I got a warm-n-fuzzy with all the checks and specifications required when putting these things on the rails. A lot of guys working pretty hard to keep things safe and modern. all Union, which is high-dollar, but they do a good job.

[The Reaper]

The rails are easy to attack, but are relatively easy to detect and do not shut the system down for very long.

Most normal derailments not involving HAZMAT are cleared in fairly short order, hours to a few days.

TR

[Sdiver]

The rails are easy to attack, but are relatively easy to detect and do not shut the system down for very long.

Most normal derailments not involving HAZMAT are cleared in fairly short order, hours to a few days.

TR

It's a become a science with the clean up crews now. They can clean up a derailment in short order.

We had a derailment south of Denver just last week. A dozen or so cars jumped the tracks in a small town south of the metro area. There was no HAZMAT and all the cars were empty, so clean up took between 24-36 hours.

Here's a link with video showing the cars jumping the track, as well as one of the axils rolling down the hill into a convenience store.

http://kdvr.com/2014/02/06/train-derails-in-sedalia-with-4-cars-off-tracks/

My grandfather (mom's dad) used to work for the Chicago NorthWestern R.R. for forty plus years. My mom said that my Grandfather HATED the Union, saying it would destroy the R.R., but after he passed away in 1970, they (the R.R.) took care of my grandmother until the day she died, two years ago. Definite love / hate relationship, that's for sure.

I have an old H.S. friend who works for a R.R. on a train wreck clean up crew. From what I gather, the rail lines are in such bad shape of disrepair, it's not surprising that we're seeing more and more derailments. You think our highways are bad, our rail system is by far worse than our roadways.