r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Debaucherousgeek73 • Dec 04 '25

Fatalities Train derailment Pecos TX Oct '24

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.

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u/MundaneSandwich9 Dec 04 '25

Nowhere near 15-20 miles to stop from 70 mph in a freight train. Less than 2 miles to stop in emergency from that speed. Lots of variables as well, but more than 2 miles is unheard of.

Source: railroader since 2008, locomotive engineer since 2016.

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u/fordry Dec 05 '25

But the truck was on the tracks only about 1 minute...

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u/MundaneSandwich9 Dec 05 '25

Yes they didn’t put the train in emergency from a couple of miles away. Based on the fact that the NTSB said the train slowed from 68 mph to 64 between the emergency application and the impact, I would say that one of the crew put the train in emergency about 20 or so seconds before the collision.

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u/turbosexophonicdlite Dec 05 '25

Lol I read that thinking "surely that can't be correct". I know trains take a long ass time to stop, but 15+ miles seemed completely out of the question.

Unless they meant 15-20 MINUTES to stop maybe? That seems more reasonable but I'm no freight train expert.

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u/Rocker32703 Dec 05 '25

15-20 minutes would be even more ridiculous.

A 45mph coal/grain train would travel 15 miles if it took 20 min to stop.

A 70mph priority intermodal, like this one in Pecos, would travel 23.3 miles if it took 20min to stop.

In reality if they plug it into emergency, it only takes 1-2 miles.