Molino Train Derailment

knothead wrote:

RottiesRule wrote:

knothead wrote:I'm feeling a bit stupid for revealing that Rottie but it was a long time ago, I try to conceal my identity.

No worries. It was a long time ago and I doubt your name comes up.
Besides, you don't have any enemies on this Forum that I know of.

YOU survived a train wreck.....amazing.

I agree . . . during my career on the RR, I had many 'incidents', however, this is one of the more dramatic.  There was a NTSB investigation and their determination was that a "washout" was caused by beavers tunneling under the roadbed in the curve making it unstable.  It was 1:21 AM, drizzling rain and I was running about 47 MPH with around 9000 tons of train when I first saw the washout.  Too late to "prevent" it so my only option was to not over react and hoped we could get over the washout through sheer forward momentum (which we did).  I had five locomotives and the 1st or lead unit and the 2nd unit remained on the rail but the 3rd was listed over, the 4th was on its side, and the 5th upside down on the embankment.  We could hear a very loud sound of pressurized gas escaping and knew immediately that it had to be one of the 6 loaded LP gas tanks had ruptured.  My brakeman cut the lead unit away and we pulled away to a safe distance and it exploded about ten minutes later with a mushroom explosion like I hope to God I never again witness.  I notified the Disp. to begin an evacuation immediately.  It was chaos my friend.

knothead wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

knothead wrote:I'm feeling a bit stupid for revealing that Rottie but it was a long time ago, I try to conceal my identity.

If you are that engineer that was dating my ex wife you been through worse than a train wreck.

T, I desperately tried to stay away from other men's wives . . .

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

knothead wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

knothead wrote:I'm feeling a bit stupid for revealing that Rottie but it was a long time ago, I try to conceal my identity.

If you are that engineer that was dating my ex wife you been through worse than a train wreck.

T, I desperately tried to stay away from other men's wives . . .

She was fair game at the time and I kind of liked him cause when she came back to me she said he treated her awful.

knothead wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

knothead wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

knothead wrote:I'm feeling a bit stupid for revealing that Rottie but it was a long time ago, I try to conceal my identity.

If you are that engineer that was dating my ex wife you been through worse than a train wreck.

T, I desperately tried to stay away from other men's wives . . .

She was fair game at the time and I kind of liked him cause when she came back to me she said he treated her awful.

T, I honestly drew lines with married women . . . it was hands off! No exceptions!

RottiesRule wrote:

knothead wrote:

RottiesRule wrote:

knothead wrote:I'm feeling a bit stupid for revealing that Rottie but it was a long time ago, I try to conceal my identity.

No worries. It was a long time ago and I doubt your name comes up.
Besides, you don't have any enemies on this Forum that I know of.

YOU survived a train wreck.....amazing.

I agree . . . during my career on the RR, I had many 'incidents', however, this is one of the more dramatic.  There was a NTSB investigation and their determination was that a "washout" was caused by beavers tunneling under the roadbed in the curve making it unstable.  It was 1:21 AM, drizzling rain and I was running about 47 MPH with around 9000 tons of train when I first saw the washout.  Too late to "prevent" it so my only option was to not over react and hoped we could get over the washout through sheer forward momentum (which we did).  I had five locomotives and the 1st or lead unit and the 2nd unit remained on the rail but the 3rd was listed over, the 4th was on its side, and the 5th upside down on the embankment.  We could hear a very loud sound of pressurized gas escaping and knew immediately that it had to be one of the 6 loaded LP gas tanks had ruptured.  My brakeman cut the lead unit away and we pulled away to a safe distance and it exploded about ten minutes later with a mushroom explosion like I hope to God I never again witness.  I notified the Disp. to begin an evacuation immediately.  It was chaos my friend.

Holy Cow! If you had panicked and hit the brakes it would have been much worse. Good Job.
Thank you for sharing.
It is amazing to me that we truly do not know what our fellow posters have been through.

2seaoat wrote:Did you have to testify beyond the NTSB?  My grandfather was an engineer in Birmingham retiring in 1957.  He would leave the engine and walk the track when creeks were coming over the rails........I remember those discussions as a kid.  My grandfather also was involved in quite a few crossing fatalities as Alabama to Atlanta had a great man crossings without signals.  He took those pretty hard.  I remember at 5 him taking me to his engine in the Birmingham yard and showing me off to his fellow engineers........he was a FDR man and was a strong union man when everybody in Birmingham was a democrat and FDR supporter.   My mother was always pissed at her dad because she found out he had a girlfriend in Atlanta.......those railroad engineers in the 30s were like the playboys of their time.......