Rail cars are strewn about Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, in a sparsely populated area about 18 miles west of Cheyenne, Wyo., after a freight train crashed into the back of another freight train the night before. The crashed killed at least one crew member with another missing and derailing more than 50 train cars.
Jacob Byk/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Railroaders are looking in to what caused one Union Pacific train to crash into another Oct. 4, killing at least one crew member.
A rail observer reports that an eastbound UP train headed to Cheyenne from Green River, Wyo., struck a parked train at a high rate of speed last Thursday about 18 miles west of Cheyenne. The crash killed one crew person and damaged locomotives and freight cars.
Friends and family of the deceased crew member are gathering monetary and food support for the crew member’s immediate family in the coming weeks.
A Union Pacific representative did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Here is a link to a PTC Map of UP (This was their August 2018 PTC update)
https://www.up.com/cs/groups/public/@uprr/@newsinfo/documents/up_pdf_nativedocs/pdf_up_media_aug_2018_ptc.pdf
According to the map, PTC was implemented here, but the investigation will determine if it was working properly or not. (We’ll see)
Positive Train Control could have been in effect but if your train has no air brakes PTC can do nothing. With miles of 1.55% grade and all the traffic, it is time to install one or two escape tracks on this long grade at location where the curving spur can end with a steep up grades, and rails covered with sand or inert retarders. The Southern RR used them successfully on Saulda Grade with switches automatically controlled by approaching speed of the down grade train.
Delay in reporting is because UP had a ban against talking to Trains Magazine and Trains wants to improve its image by not reporting on derailments as a practice. Bad PR. Bad PR was when Train Magazine left the live feed camera on in the car when the 4014 was being dragged through the tunnel on Sherman Hill and we watched the dashboard of the auto for a hour.
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Several articles report the body of the second crew member was recovered from the wreckage Saturday. The most detailed article on the crash is from Idaho where one of the trains originated – https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/two-union-pacific-workers-killed-after-train-from-pocatello-crashes/article_f230583c-a5f3-5c7f-a78a-b808adbea7d7.html
A couple of articles report that the crew of the stopped train had evacuated their train before the collision.
Wonder if PTC was active on this line.
Jan, the Meal Train page is an effort to help the surviving widow and children of the crewman who was killed in the accident.
Article from Casper Tribune. Mr Schnabel news was slowed by the weekend.
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/union-pacific-releases-names-of-crew-members-involved-in-deadly/article_78180fb8-37f9-5359-8f06-ef26f0e801e6.html
Why the four day delay in reporting on this derailment?
The live link sent me to “Meal Train” all about recipes.