Deraiilment in Nebraska

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NY Penn said:
That's actually a possibility (think NYP).
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That'll be closed tomorrow!
 
Texas Sunset said:
I wonder if "suspending service" is just another way of saying "we've finally run out of hardware."
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One issue is that could that some time to get the equipment out there to repair the tracks and lift the train cars back onto the tracks. With all the problems the CZ has had, maybe just shut it down for several days until everything gets back to base, gets serviced and then restart the trains.

Another news article on the accident: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110826/NEWS01/110829736/1007

I like this quote:

"Kelly Hayward of nearby Parks, Neb., said the truck-mounted crane boom was hanging over the tracks. Hayward said the demolition crew didn't expect a train at that hour." So, they called the freight company and were given permission to block the tracks? I suspect not.

The problem for Amtrak is that the private company tearing down the grain elevator that was near the tracks, if it is small local company, is not likely to have a large enough insurance coverage to cover the cost of the accident. Amtrak's legal department is getting a lot of extra work this year in filing lawsuits for accidents.
 
Sitting in midway Chicago airport, after Amtrak told us 1 hr before leaving, there would be no train for next couple of days. Amtrak help was giving us the number for southwest airlines, and reimbursing our ticket cost (which is far less than plane ticket, extra hotel night, taxi, and meals.). one year of planning for dream trip to yellowstone - GONE! Amtrak CS has no idea when trains will resume.
 
Fred guest said:
Sitting in midway Chicago airport, after Amtrak told us 1 hr before leaving, there would be no train for next couple of days. Amtrak help was giving us the number for southwest airlines, and reimbursing our ticket cost (which is far less than plane ticket, extra hotel night, taxi, and meals.). one year of planning for dream trip to yellowstone - GONE! Amtrak CS has no idea when trains will resume.
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Unfortuantely, that's a risk for any vacation. Think of all the people who had vacation plans on the east coast...or plans to leave the east cost this weekend.

I know that doesn't make you feel any better and am sorry your trip was cancelled.

I have my first LD trip in Nov and the main part is on the CZ. I have my fingers crossed things will be better by then, but, after being on this site for a few months, know that things could go "bad".
 
hawksley said:
just spoke to a CSR about what's going on service-wise

the next 6 going to chicago will not be hitting nebraska until WEDNESDAY. they are suspending service.

the next train headed out of chicago back this way is not showing up until MONDAY. they are suspending service.

i got my ticket completely refunded, and the very competent CSR placed a discounted hold on a ticket for a return back to LNK after i get out to chicago.

sigh! always an adventure with the zephyr :)
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Yup, our sac-chi connection from pdx was canceled for sunday. Rerouted on eb tomorrow(sat). Kept sleeper so ok. Changed it to

Sunday And still keeping sleeper. Extra 26hrs in portland is fine by us.
 
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afigg said:
Another news article on the accident: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110826/NEWS01/110829736/1007
I like this quote:

"Kelly Hayward of nearby Parks, Neb., said the truck-mounted crane boom was hanging over the tracks. Hayward said the demolition crew didn't expect a train at that hour." So, they called the freight company and were given permission to block the tracks? I suspect not.
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I would suspect that they were working within the right of way and were supposed to have had a flagman. There should have been a bulletin for the train crews as well. These guys probably broke almost every safety rule in teh book. Probably did know there even was a book.

The first thing I leared about railroad safety ran something like this: "Expect a train at any time on any track moving at or in excess of the maximum allowable speed." If you keep this in mind many of the rest concerning safety around track take care of themselves.
 
Wow ! what a year for the Zephyr, the Builder and now the Silvers for sure as well probably all the NE corridor I guess I should just say Amtrak. I can feel for everyone that has had plans altered by misfortunes that go way beyond Amtraks control. I know it is easy to point the blame at Amtrak but come on. The folks who have sour feelings toward Amtrak have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Its not Amtraks fault! These are all either acts of God, acts of stupidity or just plain dumb luck are to blame not Amtrak. So come back and ride the train while they still have some rolling stock left :blink: I also agree w George Harris about every track has a train coming, so stay off of it. My dad always told me unloaded guns kill more people than loaded guns(probably not statiscally correct but it holds water)
 
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Lots of injuries: Chicago-bound train derails in Neb.; 22 hurt

BENKELMAN, Neb. (AP) -- An Amtrak train headed from California to Chicago struck a demolition crane in southwest Nebraska on Friday, forcing two locomotives and three passenger cars off the rails but causing no major injuries, officials said.
The train, which was running on Amtrak's California Zephyr route from Emeryville, Calif., to Chicago, had 175 passengers and 17 crewmembers on board when it struck the crane at about 8 a.m. near Benkleman, which is near Nebraska's border with Kansas and Colorado.

The two locomotives that left the tracks tipped over, but the three derailed passenger cars did not, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. The seven other passenger cars remained on the track.
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At least the injuries all appear to have been minor.
 
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We are on the CZ this fall and I've been hoping that the problems that its experienced will be over with. My wife and I were just watching the news and was shaking our heads about all the wierd stuff the CZ has encountered this summer. Glad no one was killed!
 
God love the Zephyr, cause somethin's got it in for her. Farm machinery, livestock... I mean really...

Unfortuantely, that's a risk for any vacation. Think of all the people who had vacation plans on the east coast...or plans to leave the east cost this weekend.
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Yup, I'm sitting here in Richmond, VA. We were supposed to leave on the Card Sunday but alas she's been cancelled till the 31st. Really, they should bring her down from NY to CVS where she'll be out of the weather and we'd be able to get to her. I'd rather have my roomette and my favorite SCA Ainsley :D I'm homesick now for my Amtrak trains, any of them... I just heard the horn of a train passing through Richmond. Tomorrow we'll ride out the storm at the hotel and Sunday we'll be driving a rental home. :angry2:
 
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Some really strange reporting in that article:

Magliari said somehow the train collided with the crane.
"Our understanding is a portion of a crane working on a demolition project near the tracks became an obstruction to us as our train approached. Because a portion of this train was obstructing the tracks, we collided with it," he said.

"For us to contact it, it had to be obstructing the tracks somehow, either across the tracks or laying on laying on the tracks, or somehow obstructing the path of the train," Magliari said.
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DET63 said:
Lots of injuries: Chicago-bound train derails in Neb.; 22 hurt

BENKELMAN, Neb. (AP) -- An Amtrak train headed from California to Chicago struck a demolition crane in southwest Nebraska on Friday, forcing two locomotives and three passenger cars off the rails but causing no major injuries, officials said.
The train, which was running on Amtrak's California Zephyr route from Emeryville, Calif., to Chicago, had 175 passengers and 17 crewmembers on board when it struck the crane at about 8 a.m. near Benkleman, which is near Nebraska's border with Kansas and Colorado.

The two locomotives that left the tracks tipped over, but the three derailed passenger cars did not, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. The seven other passenger cars remained on the track.
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At least the injuries all appear to have been minor.
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Donctor said:
This train really can't catch a break.
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The On-Time Performance of the CZ as of May 2011 was down to 53.6% for October-May part of the fiscal year which was down from 62.6% for the Oct-May 2010 period. And this was prior to the June and July interruptions due to the flooding, truck drivers hitting the train broadside, and accidents. The OTP of many of Amtrak's western LD trains will be terrible for the year.

The one piece of recent good news for the CZ route was the obligation of $17.3 million from the HSIPR stimulus funds to Iowa for the BNSF Ottuma subdivision to install 4 remotely controlled powered crossovers which are supposed to speed up the CZ through the freight traffic in Iowa. The Governor of Iowa may be killing the new Iowa City service by not moving forward on the project, but at least, the Iowa DOT got this project funding signed off and put to work.
 
DET63 said:
Lots of injuries: Chicago-bound train derails in Neb.; 22 hurt

BENKELMAN, Neb. (AP) -- An Amtrak train headed from California to Chicago struck a demolition crane in southwest Nebraska on Friday, forcing two locomotives and three passenger cars off the rails but causing no major injuries, officials said.
The train, which was running on Amtrak's California Zephyr route from Emeryville, Calif., to Chicago, had 175 passengers and 17 crewmembers on board when it struck the crane at about 8 a.m. near Benkleman, which is near Nebraska's border with Kansas and Colorado.

The two locomotives that left the tracks tipped over, but the three derailed passenger cars did not, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. The seven other passenger cars remained on the track.
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At least the injuries all appear to have been minor.
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According to the article above, this same train hit an abandoned car in Salt Lake City making the CZ about eight hours late.
 
scientist said:
Here are links regarding the CZ-6 derailment from a local newspaper -- the McCook Daily Gazette. Probably a little more accurate and detailed than some of the national news accounts. And some really good photos and first hand accounts.

http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/1756886

http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/1757049

Link to photo gallery: http://www.mccookgazette.com/gallery/8902

Aerial images of the scene: http://www.mccookgazette.com/gallery/8896
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Based on the pics, all that's missing is a Giant Siamese Cat :) This reminds me of my first train set back in the 60s, the Tyco Super Chief, and how our cantankerous Siamese would sit and watch for a couple turns before pouncing the engines and derailing the train!
 
scientist said:
For anybody still interested in the causes of this derailment, a local newspaper story provides a pretty good account of how you don't want things to go wrong at the wrong time. Also, it provides an interesting account of how rapid the response was from the locals.
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Thanks for the link to the updated news article. Bad timing for the CZ. But some pretty careless, arguably negligent, actions by the owner of the demolition company tearing down the grain elevator. He could have just as easily have derailed a 1/2 mile or mile long freight train with hazmat cargo which might have taken out a lot more track. Found a good aerial shot of the accident scene: http://www.knopnews2.com/media/k2/videos/Aug2011/Crasho82611.jpg

There is nothing in that report that indicates that Mr. Shatter, the owner of the G&S Recycling, had contacted BNSF or made arrangements to work near or in their ROW. At least he had a phone number to call when the crane boom fell onto the tracks. Photos of the accident scene certainly indicate that the crane was set up in the BNSF ROW. There is a visible, likely abandoned, siding track next to the grain elevator. The crane was parked between the siding track and the main track. Hope G&S has a insurance policy with a LOT of coverage, because BNSF and Amtrak are likely to go after company assets for whatever the liability insurance does not cover.
 
afigg said:
There is a visible, likely abandoned, siding track next to the grain elevator. The crane was parked between the siding track and the main track. Hope G&S has a insurance policy with a LOT of coverage, because BNSF and Amtrak are likely to go after company assets for whatever the liability insurance does not cover.
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The track adjacent to the grain elevator almost certainly belonged to the grain elevator, not BNSF, and may be beyond the right of way line. (Industry tracks are almost always property of the industry, not of the railroad. The railroad company would own the turnout and track beyond it to the defined clearance point, usually [in the past at least] the point of 14.00 feet offset from the main track.) Given in apparant offset, I would suspect that the tracxk is off the right of way. That is not to take away from the liklihood that the crane was set up on the right of way without the knowledge of BNSF.

This is similar to but not quite as extreme as the case of the Sunset East into Bayou Canot as an example of the saying that "Time and Chance happens to all." That is to say, if the train had been a few minutes earlier, it would have been passed that point when the train collapsed, if a few minutes later it could have been warned in time to have stopped.
 
Amtrak officials hosted an appreciation luncheon Tuesday in the tiny hamlet of Benkelman, Nebraska, to thank residents of Benkelman and surrounding communities for coming to the rescue of nearly 200 train passengers and crew members after the Aug. 26, 2011 derailment of the eastbound California Zephyr.
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Details in today's NARP Hotline.
 
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