Derailment on to SB I-5 in Nisqually - Dupont, WA

[MK]

Is there a "cockpit" voice recorder on trains like planes?  If there is it would captute the conversations going on inside the cab and tell if the engineer was distracted by the trainee.

[nuno81291]

MK I believe there is as a discussion over at Railroad.net seems to indicate there is also inward facing cab cameras atleast in the Charger (leading unit) I believe.

[Maletrain]

I read that the cameras were damaged, and NTSB is currently trying to get data off them.

[p51]

The Charger locomotive has been moved up I-5 and all the equipment is removed from the scene (I don't know about the P42 but I didn't see it going through there this morning). We're all hoping they'll open I-5 by the evening commute.
The bridge connecting Mounts Road to the golf course was still covered with tents and cameras on tripods this morning, but will nothing to video to the south now, I suspect many (if not all) will be gone by tomorrow.
We've been lucky, being allowed to go through Perimeter road on JBLM to Mounts Road southbound. Yesterday we were only delayed by 20 minutes going home. People going the back way around JBLM through Yelm and Roy have reported that commute took several hours.

[Chris333]

From what I read they "know" the train was doing 80 because of a tracker app that last tracked them 2 miles from the curve. So do really know yet for sure how fast the train was going at the time of the crash?

[nuno81291]

I thought they garnered that info from the P42’s event recorder Chris

[delamaize]

I thought they garnered that info from the P42’s event recorder Chris

The media was getting 80mph from a tracking website. I wanna say that the NTSB confirmed that speed, at the time of brake deployment, with the P42 event recorder.

[Chris333]

Thanks, hard to find the facts.

A guy at work was telling me it was a freight line and that there are 3 types of rail lines in the US. Freight, passenger, and both. 

[up1950s]

I think that they could have come up with a easier system to be used prior to ATC implimation and activation . Why not have a police radar gun transmit that info to a cab LCD readout at speed reduction locations . This way the engineer can see his actual speed right next to the reduced speed . This way there is no sign missed , or glare as a excuse . Mounted in a simple trackside cabinet , motion detector activated , and battery powered , it then can be relocated as desired . 

[Jbub]

Thanks, hard to find the facts.

A guy at work was telling me it was a freight line and that there are 3 types of rail lines in the US. Freight, passenger, and both. 

I guess he's technically right on the 3 types of rail lines. It's either got freight on it,  passengers or both

[Chris333]

Yes and there are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count and those that can't. 

[p51]

All the RR stuff from the wreck is off the site (can't tell if the P42 is still on site, as it was always still on the rails) and up at JBLM. The loco got moved past here earlier today (I've heard rumors that the trailer with the Charger Locomotive collapsed a water main or sewer pipe along it's route but don't know if that's correct).

They're opening up the 2 left lanes southbound at 5PM.

Still no updates for my friends, they all still in the hospitals. The engineer's status of course is being held a tight secret. I don't even wanna post his first name here, as nobody is listing it anywhere that I've seen. I don't want the press to bug his wife, as she's got enough to deal with right now.

[learmoia]

Thanks, hard to find the facts.

A guy at work was telling me it was a freight line and that there are 3 types of rail lines in the US. Freight, passenger, and both. 

Yeah.. The Freight Trains run on 4' 8 1/2" track and the Passenger trains run on 1435mm track.. They can run both on dual service gauge track.

~Ian

[nkalanaga]

"Passenger trains run on 1435mm"

Some run on 1440 mm track...

For those who haven't done the math, N scale is probably the first scale to have the correct gauge from the beginning.  1440/160 is 9mm, exactly,

[Xmtrman]

Yes and there are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count and those that can't. 

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.