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On the Tracks, Not the Crossing--Changes the Physics Perhaps?
Author: [ET] That Genset Foamer
Date: 02-24-2015 - 15:19
I have a suspicion that the position of the truck relative to the railheads has something to do with why this derailment was so severe, and why this didn't happen a couple years ago with the low-boy collision in Camarillo.
Because the truck was significantly lower than the anticlimber than if the truck was on the pavement, the anticlimber functioned in exactly the opposite way it was supposed to.It could have caught on the truck's hood like a ramp and forced the railcar upward, lifting the cabcar's forward truck from the track. This could also explain why the coupler was missing from the cabcar--the front draft gear or its attachments 'yielded' in the collision. The reason why it flipped back around was likely just a matter of the derailed, hunting cabcar's remaining truck forming a 'lever' and taking the force from the remainder of the train before the 'Huck' bolts yielded. I'm still puzzled about how the bike car got ejected out of the consist though, although the track damage could have some correlation to the circumstances behind that.
Also somewhat significant, this isn't an old problem either--according to Abdill's Pacific Slope Railroads, incidents akin to this happened with sheep herds back in the 'wooden axle days' as well--if part of a flock would would get struck, they'd catch under the engine's pilot wheels and cause the engine to derail in a similar way...of course, the solution back then possibly involved improving the pilots as well.
Needless to say this issue might be a design flaw dating back to the Bombardiers--something very similar happened in the Glendale derailment back in 2005. NTSB could make some recommendations about this...
Because the truck was significantly lower than the anticlimber than if the truck was on the pavement, the anticlimber functioned in exactly the opposite way it was supposed to.It could have caught on the truck's hood like a ramp and forced the railcar upward, lifting the cabcar's forward truck from the track. This could also explain why the coupler was missing from the cabcar--the front draft gear or its attachments 'yielded' in the collision. The reason why it flipped back around was likely just a matter of the derailed, hunting cabcar's remaining truck forming a 'lever' and taking the force from the remainder of the train before the 'Huck' bolts yielded. I'm still puzzled about how the bike car got ejected out of the consist though, although the track damage could have some correlation to the circumstances behind that.
Also somewhat significant, this isn't an old problem either--according to Abdill's Pacific Slope Railroads, incidents akin to this happened with sheep herds back in the 'wooden axle days' as well--if part of a flock would would get struck, they'd catch under the engine's pilot wheels and cause the engine to derail in a similar way...of course, the solution back then possibly involved improving the pilots as well.
Needless to say this issue might be a design flaw dating back to the Bombardiers--something very similar happened in the Glendale derailment back in 2005. NTSB could make some recommendations about this...
