Devastation in Oklahoma


Unreal. I read that one conductor jumped and survived, i can't imagine what he must be going thru. And alot of talk on other boards is how did they hit head on in such a flat clear piece of railroad? Some are saying you can see ahead for miles.
 
That is truly awful. In an article i read, a trucker said he paced one train at 68 mph and that one slowed considerably but the other didn't slow much if any. Said it scared him so bad he didn't stop for 350 miles. Also highway patrol said the engines were essentially welded together.
 
on a yahoo group someone posted that it initially appears the z train blew thru 2 signals and a switch lined for the autorack to take a siding.
 
"killing two crew members and a conductor", what, the conductor is not part of the crew?
And no, the two leading locomotives were not welded together from the impact.
 
Brady i think the fire is what they were speaking of, not so much the impact. May have been an exageration on their part though.
 
Does the crew not normally watch or look forward as they barrel down the track at speed?....such that they would see another train coming at them under conditions described as "flat and you can see ahead for miles"? And someone said one of these trains passed two warning signals without slowing or stopping....I mean....were they stuck in the lavatory with the door jammed possibly?.....both at the same time? :confused:
 
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Well its not uncommon for the Conductor to be passed out on a night job where you go from point a to b and if the engineer doses off then anything can happen. Engines do have an alerter but after a while the reset switch becomes like a alarm clock snooze button. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is from the investigation but I wont be surprised to see that crew rest will be an issue.
 
railfan said:
Does the crew not normally watch or look forward as they barrel down the track at speed?....such that they would see another train coming at them under conditions described as "flat and you can see ahead for miles"?
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Good question. When you run on single track and you know you are taking the siding for an opposing train you'll see the lights for a long way so that wouldn't look out of place. It can be a little unerving when you're in a high rail!
As for the other train running the signals... depending on the territory that should have rang a few bells in dispatch I would think...
 
Rico said:
Good question. When you run on single track and you know you are taking the siding for an opposing train you'll see the lights for a long way so that wouldn't look out of place. It can be a little unerving when you're in a high rail!
As for the other train running the signals... depending on the territory that should have rang a few bells in dispatch I would think...
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Im sure it would have, but who knows what happened. I thought i read on yahoo news that they got 1 black box out, and im sure the video camera's if the footage is salvageable will tell what may have contributed.
 
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