A railroad webcam captured dramatic video and audio of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City merchandise train that stalled on a grade in Iowa on Friday — and then began rolling back downgrade toward a BNSF Railway train that was occupying the at-grade junction of the two main lines in Ottumwa.
After a few tense minutes, the BNSF train cleared the diamond and the CPKC crew was able to bring Kansas City-St. Paul train 251 to a stop just 20 feet from the diamond.
No one was injured and there was not a derailment or a collision. But the close call on the 1.6% Rutledge Hill rattled the CPKC crew.
After a crew change, the 251 departed CPKC’s Ottumwa Yard at milepost 302.8, crossed the Des Moines River, swung across the BNSF diamond at milepost 301.5, and began its climb out of the valley with CP AC4400CWM No. 8125 and ES44AC No. 8743 on the point. Several inches of fresh snow blanketed the tracks of the Ottumwa Subdivision.
In a series of clips posted to Instagram, the Steel Highway webcam at milepost 301.1 showed the train stalled at 3:10 p.m. Radio chatter began shortly afterward, with the crew notifying the CPKC dispatcher. “We’re stalled. We’re sliding back into the BN. You need to get a hold of them, let ‘em know we’re sliding the wrong way down the hill,” the crew member said.
“We’re going back to the yard whether we like it or not … it doesn’t look good,” a crew member said, noting that the train was in emergency yet was “sliding” backward and gaining speed.
At 3:14, some relief: “We’re starting to slow down now. But maybe too little, too late,” the crewman said.
A minute later, good news: “I’m freaking out right now. We’re stopped in the clear, everybody’s safe,” the crewman reported over the radio.
The CPKC dispatcher asked the crew to contact the BNSF dispatcher. “We slid back into your interlocking,” the crewman said. “I guess my dispatcher made you aware of the situation, over.”
The BNSF dispatcher asked the crew if they were OK or needed emergency services to respond.
“No, just a little freaked out,” came the reply. “We heard you had one going through and we thought we were going to kill somebody.”
“We went into emergency … we could not control the slide. I mean, we’re still sliding here. We’re just going to put it back in our yard, over,” the crewman said.
CPKC officials are investigating the incident.
IMHO and some experience, but with limited detail; It appears to me the gentleman did not help his cause after he stalled by bunching his train for slack to try and make the hill. It looks like he does it twice and then a third time on the final slide/roll back. It is common practice however.
Would the parallel Rock Island line through Eldon have had less grades?
Yes. And less curvature. Actually, between Culver (Muscatine) and Washington, the current CPKC route is the ex-CRI&P. From what I understand, the MILW line west of Ainsworth to Seymour was kept because it had more online business and the potential for more (serving Ottumwa) and that the Rock Island west of Ainsworth was in even worse shape (in 1980) than the Milwaukee.
Indeed, in addition to CPKC’s route being the most circuitous between Kansas City and Chicago or St. Paul, Rutledge Hill at Ottumwa also gives it the distinction of having the worst profile.
Also, years ago interlockings were protected by derails. I don’t know if that was a requirement or just SOP. But it seems like if you have a grade approaching a crossing at grade, derails would be a good idea.
So you already have a scary close call and pass through a stop signal without permission or authority. So let’s kick the air off without securing the train and without flagging the crossing! Good grief! The brain drain is unreal!
You sound like you may have railroading experience which I do not. That said where in the article does it mention ether train passing a stop signal. You indicate the crew kicked the air out, the article says the train was in emergency. Did the crew place it in emergency or did some action in the train put it into emergency. As to flagging the crossing who would do that, the conductor who is probably at least a mile away and conversing with two dispatchers while the engineer is trying to get his train under control. The little red caboose at the back of the train is long gone.
You might want to look the video up on YouTube before you jump to conclusions about the train crew. They handled the situation with professionalism and kept everyone informed of what was happening. And by the way they had permission from the dispatcher for a reverse move back into the yard and did in fact have a flagger. Hard to understand why so many people on this site like trains and railroads but are quick to condemn the men and women who operate them.
Ice on brake shoes and wheels
Yepp. Takes time to burn off.
One might recall the pre-merger comments about the marginal former Milw. Rd. ROW MSP-KC. Looked good on paper.
One weather related event does not make a marginal railroad overall.
I knew Rutledge hill was going to be a problem for CPKC post-merger, with the projected traffic level increases. I’ve stood at the BNSF/CPKC diamond in Ottumwa and looked up the hill- it is STEEP. You’re climbing out of the Des Moines river valley. And given the former Milwaukee Road route has been surrounded by urban development, I don’t know if a bypass is feasible.
BNSF has a Track 1 and 2 through Ottumwa. The connecting track between BNSF and CPKC uses BNSF Track 2. If the BNSF freight was crossing the CPKC control point on Track 1, the BNSF dispatcher could have cleared the consist to use the connection track to Track 2 to avoid a crossing collision at the CP. But if that passing BNSF freight was on Track 2, yikes.
This truly makes no sense.
Operationally or physically?
I get it now. I was looking at it from the west, not the east. My bad.
Both should contact the BNSF dispatch.
The way I read it they both did. The CPKC dispatcher just requested that the train update BNSF directly, possibly at the request of the BNSF dispatcher.
Seriously? As if the CPKC crew didnt have enough to deal with, their dispatcher had the crew contact the BNSF dispatcher? I know dispatchers are dealing with multiple issues at once, but come on! Seems like the CPKC dispatcher really should be the one contacting BNSF.
It’s a critical situation, the BNSF dispatcher needs to know “immediately” and on demand what the CPKC train is doing. No reason to translate. The CPKC yardmaster in Ottumwa is probably going to re-examine his loading rules during inclement weather like they were facing. Perhaps place a couple of helpers in the rear or have MOW sweep and sand the rails just ahead of time.
You are right John, looks like CPkc needs to reevaluate the length of their trains when ascending these kind of steep grades on snow covered tracks. If the head end can not gain traction all the DPUs will do is continue to push until buff forces lift a cars axle from the rails and then you could have a derailment. Common sense says that a shorter train may have made the hill. Or as you said, an MOW crew could have used some kind of flanger or sweeper to clear the snow. Doing nothing and hoping things work is an accident waiting to happen with possible deaths to the crew. Im wouldn’t want that on my conscience but someone at CPkc had no conscience so it was what it was… a bad decision.