4 ms·

The cause was an overheated wheel bearing melting and dislodging the axle, causing a derailment. The overheating was detected, and ignored. The quote is, as I

The cause was an overheated wheel bearing melting and dislodging the axle, causing a derailment. The overheating was detected, and ignored. The quote is, as I recall, "The next sensor will detect it if it's a problem." Could the electric brakes have helped? Not sure in this specific case. In other cases? Probably. Air brakes are remarkably cool technology (how the valves work still boggles me from time to time) but they are still, in the end, civil war era technology that's probably due for an upgrade.

aednichols 4y ago
I am amused by how much remixing of facts is happening. On Reddit, I learned that the railroad was negligent for not replacing the rails since the Civil War.
- wil421 4y ago
  That’s because the Anti-American bots and click farms are much more prevalent on Reddit. Not to mention I have a feeling a huge amount of active users are teens and repeat the same BS without checking.
slantedview 4y ago
There were more factors to this derailment than the ones you mention. In recent years train companies have forced longer trains than ever to be driven by a single worker, the sort of thing that would make it hard to notice a train car is on fire. They've also forced train car inspections, the sort of thing that might catch a faulty bearing, to be done faster than ever, in the push for endlessly increasing profits. The workers were raising these and other complaints last year, and our national leaders told them to take a hike, preventing them from striking.
- falcolas 4y ago
  Yes, these definitely helped contribute to the derailment (and every derailment that occurs these days). But, IMO, ignoring the hot-axle warning they did get was unconscionable (and as I understand it, it wasn't the engineers who ignored it, it was dispatch).
- aednichols 4y ago
  Noticing defects while underway has been automated by trackside detectors for decades, ever since the removal of the caboose and associated crewman. In this case, we know the detector went off as designed, and what happened - or did not happen - next was the problem.

aednichols 4y ago

I am amused by how much remixing of facts is happening. On Reddit, I learned that the railroad was negligent for not replacing the rails since the Civil War.

wil421 4y ago
That’s because the Anti-American bots and click farms are much more prevalent on Reddit. Not to mention I have a feeling a huge amount of active users are teens and repeat the same BS without checking.

slantedview 4y ago

There were more factors to this derailment than the ones you mention. In recent years train companies have forced longer trains than ever to be driven by a single worker, the sort of thing that would make it hard to notice a train car is on fire. They've also forced train car inspections, the sort of thing that might catch a faulty bearing, to be done faster than ever, in the push for endlessly increasing profits. The workers were raising these and other complaints last year, and our national leaders told them to take a hike, preventing them from striking.

falcolas 4y ago
Yes, these definitely helped contribute to the derailment (and every derailment that occurs these days). But, IMO, ignoring the hot-axle warning they did get was unconscionable (and as I understand it, it wasn't the engineers who ignored it, it was dispatch).
aednichols 4y ago
Noticing defects while underway has been automated by trackside detectors for decades, ever since the removal of the caboose and associated crewman. In this case, we know the detector went off as designed, and what happened - or did not happen - next was the problem.