March 27, 2007: Propane train derails
 

http://cellar.org/2007/propanetrainderail.jpg

I always like images where, when I see them, I don't exactly know what they are until I read the headline or caption. That's what happened here - unless you look at a lot of derailments from above, you won't immediately realize that this is a train, carrying liquid propane, that derailed near Oneida, NY, causing a big explosion.

Then when you read the caption, you look back at the image and say, wow.

Why do fuels fall in love?

:p
You're such a gas!

Drivin' that train
full of propane
Casey Jones you better...

I see you got wind of it. :D

It's awfully convenient for the cleanup crews that there was a road right there that stopped at the derailment point. Hmmm.

i see a black jesus with his crown of thorns.

I don't know when this picture was taken, but according to this article, after the initial explosion of a couple cars during impact, all the remaining propane was burned off in a controlled burn done by firefighters. So I'm not sure if this picture is before or after the controlled burn.

"I'm goin' off the rails on a propane train..."

At least it was on land or we would have a mess in our hands.

Who wants to play pick up sticks?

True, luckily ocean trains aren't apt to derail.

I would think that Ocean Trains would derail even more. :rolleyes:

Yes.

"She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie....propane."

They look like a bunch of Estes rocket motors that went off by accident (except that they aren't scattered over a huge area).

Estes rocket motors OF THE GODS!

I see...oh, wow...this Rorschach score is gonna be off the scale...

Fuck...am I gonna have to say it? Jesus fucking Christ...okay...

Wow...look at all those cocks!

Now that's just perverted. How could you even say such a thing? Shame on you. I try to inject a little class to this place and you negate it by posting this...

Whoa nelly! Look at the uncut cum shooter one on the left!


:D

Sheldon, I come here expecting you to turn the most inane of subjects into something involving gay men. You greatly disappointed me in this thread, and I hope this is not going to become a trend.

:)

I'm not gay!!! Why does everyone that knows I take and give it in the ass think I'm gay?!!!!

:eek: **I** don't think you're gay! How could I think such a thing?

If by gay you mean "funny, friendly, and just plain huggable" then yes, mister, you are gay. :p

Seriously, though, I think you should be less afraid to just be yourself. ;)

I usually am myself. Role playing costs extra. :lol:

*I* got it the first time.




But not from Sheldonrs.

You're not the boss of what I say when I read the caption and look back at the image.

huh, funny, when i looked at the train image i imagined seeing it happen from very high up and what it would have looked like...

a big poof

Sometimes a train wreck is just a train wreck.

Looks like a bunch of burnt cigarette butts sitting on the rubber moulding of a car.

How big would a seagoing propane train be? Well current post Panamax container ships carry enough containers for a train 62 miles long. Propane and natural gas ships are much larger.

So which end is the front? I would assume that the pileup is the front - but where is the engine car? Is it smooshed under the rest of them?

Weird.

I see cars still on the track to the right, so I presume that the train was traveling from left to right, with the engine leading. I reckon the engine is somewhere in the wreckage since I doubt this was the trailing end of the train and was rear ended.

Trains have safety couplings so if a car in the middle of the train jumps the track the engineer can cut it loose and book. If the engine is/was on the right then he must have left some, or all, the cars behind.
I'm not sure, but I doubt the engineer can dump cars selectively from the cab.

If the engine was/is on the left, when the cars started jumping the tracks and piling up, it would stop the cars behind them dead, and the engine with or without some cars would get the hell out of there.

I was wondering the same thing. I know if I was an engineer and all that mess happened behind me, I'd uncouple the train and get out of there.

I'm sorry, Shel. I personally thought the Barbra Streisand CDs and impeccably clean house were a dead giveaway. But it turns out that you're just a nerdy straight man. A thousand apologies.

You may not be gay, but you certainly are festive.

And anyone thinks he's the straight man, I want to see(hear) their comic.

When a train derails, a resulting loss of pneumatics results in all brakes applied on every car and fuel cutoff to the engine. In this case, engineer and conductor heard the problem, looked back, and saw sparks flying. Immediately they applied brakes. A car derailed about 5 seconds later. When the train stopped, they jumped and ran. This is what was reported.

Suspicions fall upon a rail that may have shattered. Apparently this line was inspected only last November by that ultrasonic inspection train (I believe operated by Unisys). But that rail section, for reasons not explained, could not be tested by machine; was inspected manually.

This train was shifting from one rail line to another. IOW, if settlement due to spring thaw had undermined one rail bed, then a car may have tilted and derailed during at that transition. However other reports implied this did not happen.

Trains in this region normally operate at 50 MPH. But due to the rail shift, this train was only moving at 30 MPH. Even with brakes fully applied; appreciate how many cars piled into the derailment until remaining cars could stop.

NY State is becoming concerned with CSX since well over 500 problems have occurred over the past seven years. NY's Governor has opened an investigation of CSX.

Essential to CSX is this line; a major connection to New England. Freight trains must go far north, to Albany, to get around or into NYC. A new proposal would build a tunnel from Jersey City, deep under the Hudson River, to surface in Brooklyn so that NYC can become a shipping port again. Instead shipping is from Newark NJ where freight trains can service ships.

26ish cars at 30mph? And a couple, far off the tracks. That's hard to fathom. I wonder how many cars were pushing into that wreck.
Cut off fuel to the engine? Oil to the diesel generator or electric to the drive motors. Cutting electric would be faster, wouldn't it? Or would that just allow them to freewheel?

Stay the hell off the RR crossings, you wouldn't even slow them down while they squash you.

I remember at one point a few years ago, several people got hit by trains in the Philadelphia area...some of them SEPTA commuter trains, but a couple of Amtrak ones too, IIRC. What the fuck?! Didn't your parents ever teach you to stay off RR tracks?