Possible cause for Springfield OH derailment

[nkalanaga]

Loose wheels?  Sounds  like something we'd complain about on our models.  But, apparently, an entire class of new freight cars has loose wheels, that can change gauge, and cause derailments:

https://www.railwayage.com/mechanical/wheelsets-suspected-in-ns-springfield-derailment/

Unfortunately, all I get when I try to download the actual AAR Safety Advisory is a note that the file is defective and cannot be repaired.  I tried looking for the advisory itself on the AAR website, but couldn't find it.

[signalmaintainer]

Loose wheels?  Sounds  like something we'd complain about on our models.  But, apparently, an entire class of new freight cars has loose wheels, that can change gauge, and cause derailments:

https://www.railwayage.com/mechanical/wheelsets-suspected-in-ns-springfield-derailment/

Unfortunately, all I get when I try to download the actual AAR Safety Advisory is a note that the file is defective and cannot be repaired.  I tried looking for the advisory itself on the AAR website, but couldn't find it.

Life imitating model railroading -- wheel wobble.

[John]

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Loose wheels?  Sounds  like something we'd complain about on our models.  But, apparently, an entire class of new freight cars has loose wheels, that can change gauge, and cause derailments:

https://www.railwayage.com/mechanical/wheelsets-suspected-in-ns-springfield-derailment/

Unfortunately, all I get when I try to download the actual AAR Safety Advisory is a note that the file is defective and cannot be repaired.  I tried looking for the advisory itself on the AAR website, but couldn't find it.

[peteski]

The odd thing is that all these accidents are occurring with the same railroad company.  Coincidence? Hmmmm . . .

[learmoia]

The odd thing is that all these accidents are occurring with the same railroad company.  Coincidence? Hmmmm . . .

NS has every ones focus so thats what media reports on.

UP had a string of 3 or 4 last year but they happened in rural areas with minor hazmat so no national media attention.

[signalmaintainer]

The odd thing is that all these accidents are occurring with the same railroad company.  Coincidence? Hmmmm . . .

Following all the media coverage of the most heated labor dispute in three decades, the Class 1s put themselves back on the public radar screen, then NS followed up with a high-profile four-part encore performance.

What critics of Precision (not) Scheduled (not) Railroading have said for years would eventually reach critical mass has reached critical mass: The Class 1s are sending money to Wall Street that should be used for maintenance and safety, and railroaders and communities are paying the tab. These incidents could just as well have occurred on BNSF, UP, KCS, CSX, or the two Canadian lines. And there's nothing to say the next high-profile event won't.

Remember, three people died last year when the Empire Builder derailed in Montana on BNSF's High Line. A sun kink is suspected, but was deferred maintenance to blame? Awaiting the final NSTB report. But I can say that BNSF is critically short of maintenance of way employees (BNSF laid off scores during the Covid downturn just to keep the $10 million a day BNSF was pouring into Warren Buffett's pockets flowing) and is trying to hire but can't fill the vacancies. I wager that rail de-stressing was probably deferred there.

[CBQ Fan]

What I find amusing is how the news media think that derailments are some new phenomenon!  I saw one report worried about the impact of leaked radiation from steel coil cars involved in the more recent video! 

[DirtyD79]

NS has every ones focus so thats what media reports on.

UP had a string of 3 or 4 last year but they happened in rural areas with minor hazmat so no national media attention.

Hey you! No bringing logic and rational thinking into the discussion! This is the interbutts, We're supposed to be panicking and outraging here.

[signalmaintainer]

What I find amusing is how the news media think that derailments are some new phenomenon!  I saw one report worried about the impact of leaked radiation from steel coil cars involved in the more recent video! 

Your typical reporter these days is a college indoctrinated 20-something who knows s&$t from shinola about anything. The pay is so low now that journalism is essentially a supplemental family income job. Not attracting the best and brightest anymore. I saw that coming 23 years ago when I left newspapers as a managing editor.

So it's dismaying but not surprising how little they know about railroads, or chemistry, or even how to ask the right questions to get the correct terminology.

[DirtyD79]

What I find amusing is how the news media think that derailments are some new phenomenon!  I saw one report worried about the impact of leaked radiation from steel coil cars involved in the more recent video! 

And that is how the Atlas Trainman gained his powers. He got bitten by a radioactive coil car.

[MVW]

Your typical reporter these days is a college indoctrinated 20-something who knows s&$t from shinola about anything. The pay is so low now that journalism is essentially a supplemental family income job. Not attracting the best and brightest anymore. I saw that coming 23 years ago when I left newspapers as a managing editor.

So it's dismaying but not surprising how little they know about railroads, or chemistry, or even how to ask the right questions to get the correct terminology.

Are you me?  Bailed out as managing editor in 1999. Newspapers didn't die, they committed suicide by hollowing out their product.

Jim

[oakcreekco]

Honestly, I'm surprised that the "save the world" dolts haven't targeted railroads for flange lubrication. 😂

The end of the world, one curve at a time.

[signalmaintainer]

Are you me?  Bailed out as managing editor in 1999. Newspapers didn't die, they committed suicide by hollowing out their product.

Jim

Spot on. And also by alienating 30-35 percent of their readership, who dumped their subscriptions and fled to talk radio and other outlets beginning in the early 1990s.

Hell, these kids can't even name all 50 states or point to them correctly on a map.

[John]

Spot on. And also by alienating 30-35 percent of their readership, who dumped their subscriptions and fled to talk radio and other outlets beginning in the early 1990s.

I dumped the BaltimoreSun when they stopped reporting the news on the front page and made everything political ..

[signalmaintainer]

I dumped the BaltimoreSun when they stopped reporting the news on the front page and made everything political ..

Metro dailies don't report news anymore; they write advocacy narratives. Many community newspapers don't write editorials any longer; too afraid of ruffling feathers.

There are only two sections of a newspaper (print or digital) that I remotely trust -- the sports scores and the stock quotes. Why? Because both can be independently verified.