Carolinian 80(9) Grade Crossing accident

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If the truck was on the crossing for some 20 minutes, and there was a state policeman there as well, calling 911 or the railroad should have come to someone's mind. The telephone number is stenciled on every crossing control box in the country. Kinda unbelievable.
 
jis said:
Anyway, from the video it seems that the baggage car is not as damaged as it originally looked from the photo.
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The Heritage baggage car may not be badly damaged, but with the new baggage cars finally getting close to revenue service, I think it is safe to say that no significant funds will be spent on repair. At least, this accident did not occur with a brand new Viewliner baggage car on the Carolinian.
The grade crossing collision occurred on a single track segment of the line. That doesn't help with restoring service quickly. Boy, it has been a bad stretch of grade crossing collisions resulting in derailed passenger trains in recent weeks.
 
RyanS said:
xyzzy said:
I would guess there are 250 grade crossings between Richmond and Jacksonville. Closing or bridging over them all would be an impossible expense.
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That number's got to be off by at least an order of magnitude.
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There are that order of grade crossing between Miami and Jacksonville on the FEC is what I am told. I am sure there are more than 25 gated grade crossings between Richmond and Jacksonville. :)
 
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I'll defer on the speed limit. It may well be 70 m.p.h. on that curve. Google Maps street view shows it to be pretty sharply superelevated.

Yes, I noticed that 15 minutes too. However, that was an estimate from a bystander who may or may not have been accurate in his estimate. For all we know, it could have been 5 minutes and the Highway Patrol may have been in the process of notifying the railroad. Or maybe the truck was stuck for 15-30 minutes, but the trooper may have only been on site for 5 minutes. Maybe they just didn't have as much time as the bystander thought. Let's not jump to contusions. Hopefully this will all come out in the investigation.

The line should be back in full operation by the time Wednesday's southbound Auto Train leaves. There may be slow orders through the accident site, but that probably won't create an unreasonable delay. The real problem will be the backlogged traffic that will have to be moved.

250 grade crossings? I once heard the number, but can't remember it. 250 is an extremely low estimate. The Auto Train's coach diner was placed between the engines and coaches for a number of reasons, one of which is to create more distance between the engine's horn and the coaches where passengers are trying to sleep at night.

Tom
 
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RyanS said:
xyzzy said:
I would guess there are 250 grade crossings between Richmond and Jacksonville. Closing or bridging over them all would be an impossible expense.
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That number's got to be off by at least an order of magnitude.
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I was thinking about signaled crossings. 600 miles, more or less, and a lot of them in desolate territory. But you're probably right that 250 is a low count. If you included crossings in the middle of nowhere that have only crossbucks, you could easily go over 1000.
 
Safe Driver said:
When are they going to require brains to get a trucking license?
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When consumers are willing to pay considerably more for the products truckers haul?

Driving a truck is sure not rocket science, so just how much education and/or licensing do you think should be required for truck drivers?

There is no doubt the driver of the truck involved in this incident made a costly mistake.

I drove an over-the-road truck for 8 years.

There are good, mediocre, and not so good truck drivers.

I know because over that 8 year period I saw both kinds out there on the road.

There are good, mediocre, and not so good - state troopers, doctors, airline pilots, nurses, bus drivers, car drivers, dentists, nuclear physicists, and hair dressers too.
 
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RyanS said:
xyzzy said:
I would guess there are 250 grade crossings between Richmond and Jacksonville. Closing or bridging over them all would be an impossible expense.
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That number's got to be off by at least an order of magnitude.
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250 grade crossings may be on the low side, but I seriously doubt that it off by a factor of 10 times. According to the Amtrak timetable, the distance from Richmond Staples Mill to Jacksonville is 643 miles over the A-Line. Signaled crossing every 2.5 miles is not an unreasonable ballpark guess.
Closing or separating all grade crossings would not be an impossible expense, as we have somehow managed to pay for many more miles of limited access highways or many 100s of miles of grade separated tracks in the Northeast without that much fuss over the years. But given the rural nature of much of the route, not going to be much political support to go all out on grade separation.

Edit: hit enter too soon.
 
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TV says truck was a lowboy (to accommodate high load under bridges) with a special permit and had to have state police escort. If so, wonder if trooper radioed CSX so dispatcher could alert Train of issue?
 
Palmetto said:
If the truck was on the crossing for some 20 minutes, and there was a state policeman there as well, calling 911 or the railroad should have come to someone's mind.
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Why would you call 911 when the police are on the scene?

It seems to me that the problem is the police not calling Amtrak.
 
Guest said:
Boy the Cardinal is really having some bad luck. I'm taking the Silver Star Friday down to Tampa. Hope things are cleared up by then.
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Yeah, as soon as I posted this I realized I misread "Cardinal" for the "Carolinian". Just hope it's all cleaned up by Friday.
 
Video of the collision getting heavy play here on tv in Austin along with the flooding videos from Central Texas.(we've had up to 4 inches of Rain on the I35 Corridir and more in East Texas!)

I'm wondering why the State Trooper didn't notify the Railroad and Amtrak so the train could be stopped? What good does it do if he was just racking up OT and did nothing when the truck got stuck!

Be interesting to see the official findings on this one! Looks like the trains are a mess on this line now!!!
 
From what the ABC news article linked to above said the trailer was not bottomed out on the tracks, rather the driver was maneuvering to get the 164 foot long trailer around the right hand turn after the tracks.

Regular flatbed or box semi trailers are 48 feet or 53 feet long.
 
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If SEHSR had been funded, the train would not have been operating on the A-line and instead would have been operating on a rebuilt S-line at 110 mph with no grade crossings whatsoever. Of course, the construction price of SEHSR at 150 miles is at least a billion, maybe two -- and that's why it hasn't happened yet. Multiply that by four for the entire line RIchmond-Jacksonville.
 
xyzzy said:
If SEHSR had been funded, the train would not have been operating on the A-line and instead would have been operating on a rebuilt S-line at 110 mph with no grade crossings whatsoever. Of course, the construction price of SEHSR at 150 miles is at least a billion, maybe two -- and that's why it hasn't happened yet. Multiply that by four for the entire line RIchmond-Jacksonville.
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In my later years, I am starting to question all of the money we spend blowing up things "over there". If we would mind our own business, we could have nice things like HSR crisscrossing the continent "here". Much like the other countries that do have such infrastructure - and depend on us to go waste our money getting embroiled in losing engagements.

I know, I know - soon "they'll start hating us for our freedom to travel anywhere quickly", or something like that. Maybe if we could convince the MIC that we needed HSR for rapid intracontinental troop deployment they'd come on board?

This is just the opinion of an aging six-year Navy veteran (1980-1986)
 
Amtrak Service Alert:

Amtrak Carolinian Service Disrupted in North Carolina Most Amtrak Trains to Operate Normally in North Carolina on March 10
March 9, 2015
6:30 p.m. EDT

Due to a railroad incident on March 9, northbound Amtrak service on the Carolinian route is disrupted on Tuesday, March 10. Passengers scheduled to ride Train 80 between Raleigh, N.C. and Richmond, Va., (Staples Mill Station) will be accommodated on chartered buses between those points.

Other Amtrak services through Rocky Mount, N.C., will operate subject to some delay after Train 80 that originated on March 9 struck a vehicle on the tracks at a grade crossing approximately 30 miles north of Rocky Mount, in Halifax County. There were 212 passengers and eight crew members on board and several were taken to local medical facilities for treatment. None of the injuries have been reported as life threatening. An investigation is ongoing.

The Carolinian (Trains 79 & 80) operates daily between Charlotte, N.C., and New York City.

Amtrak regrets any inconvenience. This information is correct as of the above time and date. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant.

Passengers with travel plans can confirm their train's status, change their plans or review refund information using a range of tools – including Amtrak.com, smartphone apps or by calling 800-USA-RAIL. Service Alerts, Passenger Notices and other announcements are posted at Amtrak.com/alerts.

To be notified of service disruptions on the Northeast Corridor (including Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other corridor services), follow @AmtrakNEC on Twitter.
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A few minutes ago, I got a text from a friend who is working tonight's southbound Auto Train. They are boarded, serving dinner, and leaving Lorton now. So I guess the powers that be, are expecting the line to be cleared soon. Halifax is about 3-1/2 hours running time from Lorton, but I wouldn't count on the A-Train making maximum speed.

I do not know whether this means tomorrow's Auto Train will run on schedule, or whether it will run at all, for that matter. If you're scheduled to be on any Amtrak train on the Silver corridor in the next few days, I recommend checking with Amtrak before counting your chickens.

Tom
 
For those of you who are wondering why those state troopers didn't think to contact CSX to have trains stop I can answer the question. Cops are not the brightest people in the world. I can tell you endless stories of some of the stupid stuff I've seen them do in my many years as a Firefighter. You want a story shoot me a PM.

I should also state that on the railroad it is not an "accident" it is an "Incident".
 
Acela150 said:
For those of you who are wondering why those state troopers didn't think to contact CSX to have trains stop I can answer the question. Cops are not the brightest people in the world. I can tell you endless stories of some of the stupid stuff I've seen them do in my many years as a Firefighter. You want a story shoot me a PM.

I should also state that on the railroad it is not an "accident" it is an "Incident".
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It's interesting that you already know so much about whether or not the the troopers attempted to contact the railroad. I imagine there is more than one person on this board that might take offense to your generalization. I know police officers that feel the same way about firefighters, and their generalizations are just as wrong as yours.
 
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