Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

I live in a small town (1300 people) established in the 1800s as a water stop by the Union Pacific RR, it included a depot and an auxiliary rail yard primarily for track maintenance. The UP spur runs from LA thru Las Vegas and up to Salt Lake City.

For ten miles each direction out of town there is a double track switching system so trains can pass each other, either going different directions or the same direction. The tracks run thru the center of town and there is only one vehicle and pedestrian crossing with the appropriate signals.

Since I am a big fan of railroads, and particularly railroad art (graffiti), I pay attention to trains.

Back in 2019 BC (Before Covid) when the economy was booming, we were seeing a daily average of ten trains coming thru here. They were loaded, heavy trains, often with 8 engines - four up front, two in the middle and two pushing. It's a helluva climb up the canyon from Vegas, so the RR needed some power to pull those loads. It was not uncommon to see two trains rolling thru town. Product was movin', like gang busters.

Then, within 6 months of the election debacle that put a mentally dysfunctional feather merchant in the WH, who for some insane reason immediately lowered the boom on the transportation industry - the airlines, railroads, trucks, buses, oil production, pipelines, ships and maritime ports - we began to see a disturbing trend developing. Things were happening with the trains we had never before seen.

First thing we noticed was a significant decline in the number of trains per day. Sometimes not more than three or four.
Engines - maybe three at most - coming thru pulling long strings of flat cars and not a shipping container in sight.
Engines pulling empty box cars, their doors open or closed, or empty oar and tank cars, all rattling like tin cans in a high wind.
There were huge trains, partially loaded, some cars empty, some full, and flat cars with one or two containers.
The supplies were dwindling.

I was up the canyon, parked by the tracks, having lunch, and waiting for a train. Wanted to get some photos of the RR art. Saw an engine coming in my rear view mirror. Got out my android, fired up the camera, and watched rather astonished as one engine pulling 50 empty box cars rolled by.

But things got worse. Engines broke down. Never before had we seen, not one, but two diesel electric RR engines sitting in the rail yard siding waiting for parts.

One day a train came in from the north (I watched this happen), and as the train rounded the turn into town, the engineer slammed on the brakes. He managed to stop the train about 100 yds short of the RR crossing.
And, there it sat for five straight days, blocking one of the tracks and forcing UP to hustle their asses off to reschedule all trains on this spur.

One day a train came in from the north, and who could have imagined, an engine up front broke down after the train had closed the crossing. They had to decouple the cars blocking the crossing and pull the train apart.
And this one sat there for three days, waiting for parts. Again, UP had to scramble to reschedule the trains.

I talked with the engineer and conductor on one of those broke down trains.
You don't wanna know what they said.
But here's a hint, it was mostly about a freak called "Amtrak Joe".

There's more.

I talked to the gandy dancers, yard workers and track maintenance guys.
Houston, we have a problem!

And, it's gonna get worse.

Still waiting for a train.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

It doesn't take rocket science, does it?
During my career as a firefighter, I learned just how mean metals can be when they get hot.

America 1 Loc: South Miami

No, you asked all of them.
SOP for you.

maureenthannon

It encouraged you to vote for Biden. So, you chose to inflict the whole country with a 600% increase in inflation. When Biden took office, inflation was 1.4%. While running for office,, Biden said that he was going to end fossil fuel in America. The first thing you learn in Economics 101 is the LAW OF SUPPLY & DEMAND! Reduce the supply, and the price rises. We all know that when you raise the price of fuel, the price of EVERYTHING goes up. And you voted for Biden to pull the troops out of Afghanistan BEFORE our citizens and before the Afghans who helped us. Biden's own Defense Department told him to take the citizens and the Afghans who helped us first. But Joe wouldn't do that because that's what Trump had planned to do. There may have been a time when Democrats cared about the people. But, since the DEMOCRATS have become the PARTY OF THE MILLIONAIRES & BILLIONAIRES, THAT'S NO LONGER TRUE!

JR-57 Loc: South Carolina

“We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact. From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident.” | Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, 27 February 2023

Snoopy

An over-heated beating failed . . . True cause of the accident.

Sensors warned of situation but workers could not act in time.

Snoopy

Snoopy

Sorry: bearing

JR-57 Loc: South Carolina

You’re the epitome of an antagonistic narcissist.

America 1 Loc: South Miami

The bearing failed, and straight takes a beating.

JR-57 Loc: South Carolina

I agree. Our federal government has grown far beyond the Founder's original intent. The monster that exists today is public enemy number one.

Smedley_buzkill

I'm surprised at you. You usually do better research than that. The brakes had NOTHING to do with the train derailment, as per the Biden nominated and Democrat controlled Congress confirmed head of the NTSB.

https://reason.com/2023/02/24/new-ntsb-report-highlights-useless-premature-regulatory-push-after-east-palestine-derailment/

The latest report from safety officials investigating the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, shows that the left and right's post-accident regulatory proposals likely would have done nothing to prevent the crash. A preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday suggests a mechanical issue with an overheated wheel bearing was to blame for the accident.

The report says that track sensors detected a wheel bearing on the Norfolk Southern train was heating up rapidly as it traveled through eastern Ohio. When a sensor alerted the crew that the bearing's temperature hit 253 degrees above the ambient temperature, they brought the train to a halt to inspect the problem.

During their braking procedure, the train's automatic brakes were triggered—which likely meant the train had already derailed by the time the crew was bringing it to a stop.

This is just a preliminary report. It doesn't identify what caused the train's wheel bearing to overheat in the first place. But it does suggest that most of the post-accident commentary has been disconnected from the actual causes of the accident.

Prior to the release of the NTSB report, the White House and the media have been eager to pin the cause of the disaster on various deregulatory moves made by the Trump administration.

In particular, they've pointed to the Trump administration's revocation of an Obama-era rule that would have required Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes on all trains carrying exclusively high-flammable cargo.

The revocation of that rule wasn't just an initiative of the Trump administration, however. The 2015 FAST Act required the administration to perform a cost-benefit analysis of requiring ECP brakes, and not go forward with the mandate if it didn't pass that cost-benefit analysis. A congressional watchdog report in 2016 found that the Obama administration had implemented its ECP mandate without doing a thorough enough analysis of the technology's costs and performance.

That's all kind of beside the point, however. Even if the ECP rule had been in place, it wouldn't have applied to the train that derailed in East Palestine. That train was carrying mixed cargo without enough high-flammable cargo-containing cars to trigger the old ECP rule.

On February 16, NTSB director Jennifer Homendy said people blaming the accident on the repeal of the ECP rule were spreading "misinformation."

Nice one, Donny? How about you screwed the Pooch, StraightUp?

JR-57 Loc: South Carolina

The antagonistic narcissist will never admit it. He’ll simply spin a response to remind us what a genius he is. Deep down he knows it. His writing style always leaves an out.

Smedley_buzkill

"More spin?" I don't see any cites or sources for your own left wing opinions.
I just refuted your post, using a verbatim statement, with cite, from the head of the NTSB. Is it your contention that your half-baked, unsupported opinion is more valid than that of the person who heads up the NTSB? Oh, and by the way, your boy Obama was SUCH an environmentalist, which explains how the Animas River spill, headed up by the Obama EPA, was such a resounding success, with tens of thousands of square miles of aquifer poisoned. I'm interested to see how you try and blame Trump for that one.

Smedley_buzkill

The regulation would not have applied to that train whether or not it was rolled back, because of the cargo the train was carrying. The original regulation, untouched by your favorite woolly boogerman, Trump, would not have made One. Fucking. Bit. Of. Difference. For someone as smart as you think you are, you can be incredibly obtuse when your parochial little worldview is threatened by reality.

EmilyD

StraightUp was finally forced to admit this after several people proved to her she was wrong.

Watch her crow about how wonderful she was to do that......(when she had no choice)!