Railworks America

I'm sure many people heard about the nasty derailment up in North Dakota involving 2 trains and no injuries. I was shocked just like everyone else. And it was on BNSF track. Not like that is significant by any means, but I have family who works for BNSF, and I live along BNSF tracks (check my signature below). The only reason why I am a little concerned is because there have been 2 derailments in my area that I have heard of. Now of course it's a railroad, and derailments are just like car accidents: they happen. But the entire time I've been alive, I haven't heard of any derailments on the BNSF in my area. Until the 2 between October and November. The first was the 22nd of October, the BNSF had a derailment at Ebner, a siding on the Barstow Sub just south of Savanna. About 4 or 5 cars were put on the ground, and when I went back in late November, they were still there. That's when the other happened. The day before I went and saw the cars on the ground (which I didn't get photos of), BNSF had a derailment with a tank car and a couple others, and the tank car was sitting there with the trucks in the middle of the car. They had both main tracks in Rochelle blocked off, and ran almost no trains Saturday and Sunday through. The only train that I really saw was going past Ebner where the earlier cars had been left.
There have been a few others recently that I haven't noticed, but it just seems a little strange. Not that I'm paranoid, I just find the escalation from none to like 5 is a little hairy.

Yes i have seen that video, its a very popular derailment, i was just watching the video of the timelapse of San bernardino to Barstow, or the other way around, but in the recommended videos was a Bnsf derailment video.

NSrailfan6130 wrote:Yes i have seen that video, its a very popular derailment, i was just watching the video of the timelapse of San bernardino to Barstow, or the other way around, but in the recommended videos was a Bnsf derailment video.

My video that I linked or the ND derailment?

Tracks getting older, railroad may be skimping on maintenance to save money (or pocket more money) plus a huge increase in oil being moved by rail. Stands to reason, somewhere on the line, something's gonna give.

Those cars left laying on their side must be empties. I would hope any cargo would be removed and sent on it's way by now.

Most likely it's a function of the Winter. This has been a tough one and there are a lot of problems related to cold. The railroads are doing very well for themselves and this would be a unlikely time for them to be skimping on maintenance.

buzz456 wrote:Most likely it's a function of the Winter. This has been a tough one and there are a lot of problems related to cold. The railroads are doing very well for themselves and this would be a unlikely time for them to be skimping on maintenance.

I just read of another one on Facebook, something to do with crossovers near Cicero. The ones that I knew of for sure though were in the fall time, October and November. Oh well. Guess I, as a railfan, better stand back