Amtrak EB 1, Water Truck 0 (8/10/17)

Surprised this is not already posted here. Yesterday the Empire Builder west bound was struck by a water truck outside Minot ND. I was on the train and we finally got into Seattle today 4 hrs late.

The article below does not mention that the second engine was put out of commission along with the Seattle baggage car and crew sleeping car. They removed these three cars in Minot and used a BNFS engine to help us the rest of the way to Seattle.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/no-one-injured-when-amtrak-train-truck-collide-on-tracks/article_f733712c-94f9-5626-b5e4-decaea616059.html

MINOT -- A westbound Amtrak train and a semi with a trailer carrying water collided on the tracks about 20 miles east of Minot early Thursday morning.

Passengers were stuck on the tracks for about 2.5 hours waiting for minor repairs to the train and for a safety inspection of the train.

No one was injured.

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Don

Doesn't matter what the police do; if you don't yield to a train, it's gonna be a big "fail"!

If the truck was traveling along next to the tracks, wouldn't the driver have been aware there was a train when he turned north, a few feet to crossing the tracks. The EB is lucky no cars derailed. This could have been much worse.

Lonestar648 said:

If the truck was traveling along next to the tracks, wouldn't the driver have been aware there was a train when he turned north, a few feet to crossing the tracks. The EB is lucky no cars derailed. This could have been much worse.

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My theory is he was on his phone or texting.

Don

I was on the eastbound EB 8(9) when this happened. When we got to Havre, MT, there were an unusual amount of conductors on the platform. One of them was talking about the water truck accident and that they might have to go drag the 7 train in. Glad it didn't turn out worse!

"Considering where the truck hit the train, my deduction is that the train was travelling just behind the truck, and when the driver turned to cross the track, that slight pause bought the front of the train up to the crossing. If the truck had been a couple of seconds earlier it would have collided with the front of the train." Sherlock paused then, and drew deeply on his pipe... "Don't let folk decoy you away from the facts" he continued, but to be honest, I had lost interest in his ramblings by then...

Dr Whats On.

dcoy said:

I was on the train and we finally got into Seattle today 4 hrs late.

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Heck, that's earlier than trains without collisions! :blink:

I agree! I was on an EB that was over 5 hours late into PDX, and they were debating if they were going to annul in SPK but decided to send us thru and hold the CS. And we didn't even hit a water truck.

For a train that was stuck over 2 1/5 hours and then pulled by a freight locomotive, being only 4 hours late at the destination is great! Especially considering this incident occurred over 1,000 miles away from there!

Not sure about the thread title. It's really EB 1, Water Truck 3. The Empire Builder took out one water truck but the water truck took out there units. E/73, ViewBag 61042, & TransDorm 39039.

Doesn't say the transdorm was replaced like the engine was. Where did the crew have to stay? How did the baggage get to SEA without a replacement baggage car?

Skyline said:

Where did the crew have to stay?

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Fortunately, by the time this happened, there was room in the 27 sleeper, with additional rooms becoming available in SPK in 7's sleepers.

Skyline said:

Doesn't say the transdorm was replaced like the engine was. Where did the crew have to stay? How did the baggage get to SEA without a replacement baggage car?

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27 has a bag coach and fortunately, 7 was equipped with a bag coach as well. They try to keep a bag coach on the trains just in case something happens with the baggage car. 8(11)/28(11) had to utilize their bag coaches as well.

I have a question for Amtrak employees. I know that your contract requires a separate room for each crew member. But what if there was not enough empty rooms in an emergency. Would they share a room or would they drag a paying customer off the train like United and give his room to the crew.