Palmetto - Train 89 Incident

Engineer suffered a broken arm and some head injuries. Lucky considering the severe damage to the 627.

You have to find out what protection the back hoe had. That's possibly a contributing factor.

This train was The Palmetto, correct? And the back hoe was Amtrak's (or working for Amtrak)?

Very sad to see this, condolences to all involved. I was through that area at least three times last week on SEPTA as it is one of my regular commuting routes. The track that had maintenance being performed was likely just having routine maintenance; the ride quality on that southbound local track in that area was fine.

In spite of the lack of grade crossings in the area - and the tracks are elevated versus the surrounding terrain on fill with many road bridges - there is easy access for maintenance and emergency vehicles at Main St & 6th St in Trainer, which is the next road underpass south from the accident site. This is I believe an Amtrak MoW location or at least access point to the RoW. The train stopped along a former PRR yard, with the northbound side recently upgraded by NS for rail car storage; the southbound side has long been removed.

Amtrak has announced a resumption of limited service, probably with a 1-2 track railroad on the northbound side. SEPTA will likely have a bit more trouble resuming. There is Hook interlocking just south of there in Marcus Hook, but Baldwin (I think that's what it's called, under the I-95 overpass at Crum Lynne a few miles north) is not a full interlocking and the next isn't until Phil where the SEPTA airport line diverges. If SEPTA can't use either southbound track, they would have to "wrong rail" for a significant distance.

Ryand-Smith wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Correct, there are no grade crossings on the NEC and there was MOW work going on. This is indeed very tragic for all involved.

There are 5 or so in Connecticut near 150MPH operations zones, and I hope the familes find out before the media leaks it

??

The crossings are no where near the 150mph stretches.

I happened to see 90 yesterday and noticed that the baggage was on the rear of the train. The photos of 89 today indicate that was the case here as well. Is there an operational reason why 89 and 90 have the bag on the rear of the train? It seems to me (as a layman) that there might be some safety advantages to keeping the bag at the front of the train.

8th Notch wrote:

Ryand-Smith wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Correct, there are no grade crossings on the NEC and there was MOW work going on. This is indeed very tragic for all involved.

There are 5 or so in Connecticut near 150MPH operations zones, and I hope the familes find out before the media leaks it

??

The crossings are no where near the 150mph stretches.

His entire post made absolutely no sense.

SEPTA currently has suspended Wilmington/Newark to City Center service, and are accepting Amtrak tickets on the Thorndale/Pavoli and Trenton lines to 30th Street.

Edit: Going by the info from the news stations and Philly.com, the train hit the on-rail backhoe on Booth Street and came to a stop at the HOOK interlocking. Current photos have the train at HOOK.

Bob Roberts wrote:I happened to see 90 yesterday and noticed that the baggage was on the rear of the train. The photos of 89 today indicate that was the case here as well. Is there an operational reason why 89 and 90 have the bag on the rear of the train? It seems to me (as a layman) that there might be some safety advantages to keeping the bag at the front of the train.

That would presume a hypothetical accident would occur at the front of the train. It's possible a rear-end collision could occur in which case that baggage on the rear would help.

I know nothing about their reasoning, but would guess the location of the baggage car(s) is operations-driven rather than a safety decision.

The Palmetto bag at the rear is because the front Amfleet cars are the NEC NYP - WASH add on cars. At WASH these cars are disconnected from the thru cars. ACS-64 then pulls ahead and then backs to ivy city. P-42 then connects to thru cars does brake test and leaves WASH..

STrRedWolf wrote:SEPTA currently has suspended Wilmington/Newark to City Center service, and are accepting Amtrak tickets on the Thorndale/Pavoli and Trenton lines to 30th Street.

Edit: Going by the info from the news stations and Philly.com, the train hit the on-rail backhoe on Booth Street and came to a stop at the HOOK interlocking. Current photos have the train at HOOK.

Unless they've started to move the equipment, the location 89 stopped is about centered here: https://goo.gl/maps/cKsLSPr14hB2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (use Earth mode if it doesn't come up that way). It's opposite the NS yard on the southeast side of the tracks and about a mile northeast of HOOK. In the current Google imagery, there is an Acela in the approximate area of where 89 stopped and on the same track.

I think that the Congress critters promised us that Positive train Control would prevent Roadway Workers and equipment from fouling trains?

JimBoylan wrote:I think that the Congress critters promised us that Positive train Control would prevent Roadway Workers and equipment from fouling trains?

PTC doesn't stop anything from fouling a track. It prevents Roadway works and equipment from occupying a track but not from fouling it. Even then I would say "prevents" is a misleading word. It only adds increased protection not prevention. The rules still have to be followed. We'll have to wait and see what happened in this case.

khecht wrote:

STrRedWolf wrote:SEPTA currently has suspended Wilmington/Newark to City Center service, and are accepting Amtrak tickets on the Thorndale/Pavoli and Trenton lines to 30th Street.

Edit: Going by the info from the news stations and Philly.com, the train hit the on-rail backhoe on Booth Street and came to a stop at the HOOK interlocking. Current photos have the train at HOOK.

Unless they've started to move the equipment, the location 89 stopped is about centered here: https://goo.gl/maps/cKsLSPr14hB2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (use Earth mode if it doesn't come up that way). It's opposite the NS yard on the southeast side of the tracks and about a mile northeast of HOOK. In the current Google imagery, there is an Acela in the approximate area of where 89 stopped and on the same track.

I think you're right. It's at the yard, not at HOOK. The Philly.com article places it there, but some of the ABC/NBC/CBS photos are a bit deceiving with the camera angle.

A news photo showed the track machine involved to be a LORAM LRV-11.
I believe this is an information sheet on that machine with photos.

http://www.loram.com/services/default.aspx?id=102" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nearly all of these incidents come down to something simple that was done wrong. I look forward to the NTSB reports as to what went wrong this time ... and hope that it will be a lesson learned so we won't see this type of incident again.