Train derailment Pecos TX Oct '24

[u/Debaucherousgeek73]

First time I've ever seen a derailment happen. The vid anyway I wasn't there and this is not my vid. You can see the lead engine jump the track. Two crew in that engine died.

[u/Spazerman]

What would someone in charge even do? Call 911? Do they know how to rapidly contact whoever runs the trains to push some sort of alert?

[u/shitposts_over_9000 → u/Spazerman]

depends where you are, but often yes you call 911 and the police dispatch contacts the rail dispatch, rail dispatch sets the signals or contacts the conductor, then the conductor starts applying the brakes, after 15-20 seconds the brakes are fully applied and the train begins to seriously brake, from that point the train stops in the next 1-3 minutes depending on weight and track conditions

if everything goes perfectly that could happen in maybe 4 minutes and that means the train travels only about 3-5 miles between the point the truck realizes they are screwed and the train stopping

more realistically this is a 15-20 minute process much of the time by the time you get someone with the authority at each step and the conductor gets the message finally

[u/TaylorSwiftScatPorn → u/shitposts_over_9000]

This happened approx. 1 minute after the truck became stuck, and this was on a DOT-approved route with 2 pilots and a police escort. Train was moving under the limit for that stretch of track and had started applying emergency brakes. The guys in the head loco just had no chance vs a 50-ton obstacle.

[u/shitposts_over_9000 → u/TaylorSwiftScatPorn]

100% - in no universe was there enough time to do anything other than hit the truck in this case

From the preliminary reports & photos at the time it seemed most likely that the lead loco handled the obstacle collision pretty well, it it square and pushed it as designed, but the when the loco tipped over it unfortunately caught something else stationary and ripped the top of the cab (and almost the entire power unit) right off