FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A 14-car derailment blocked BNSF Railway’s main line east of Flagstaff on Monday, disrupting freight traffic as well as Amtrak’s Southwest Chief.
A BNSF spokesperson told local media outlets the accident occurred at 5:14 a.m., and that no hazardous materials were involved. A BNSF service advisory placed the derailment site at Darling, Ariz., about 15 miles east of Flagstaff and did not offer an estimate when service would be restored.
Southwest Chief trains were halted by the derailment at Flagstaff and Albuquerque on Monday, with a bus bridge operating between the two cities and the trains turned at those locations. As of 7:30 a.m. CDT Tuesday, the eastbound Chief, which would normally arrive in Chicago at 2:50 p.m., is scheduled to arrive at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday. The westbound Chief is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at 11:19 a.m., some 3 hours, 19 minutes late.
John –
BNSF is self-insured. Warren Buffet is the re-insurance king. BNSF doesn’t need PSR.
This was a derailment; not a collision.
Braden,
Angell isn’t a CP, but it is the site of a wye off of Main 1 that can be used for MOW, BO setout, etc. You can see the arrangement on Google Maps.
If there was only 1 train involved PTC had nothing to do with it.
Thinking the same Mr. Roberts. Second BNSF derailment in three days, we had the NTSB Perlim. report on the CSX PTC derailment come out, NS derailment in Georgia, and NS collision in Cincinnati. Seems like our railroads are somehow all falling apart and derailing itself at the same time.
For those wondering about PTC territory, according to the BNSF PTC map, yes unfortunately this collision occurred in PTC territory.
What I find interesting is that this is the second train collision to occur on BNSF in three days.
Dennis is Angel a control point?
The derailment actually occurred at Angel, MP 322.7, which is still east of Darling. The train involved was a H-TULBAR, High Priority manifest from Tulsa, OK to Barstow, CA. The majority of the cars that derailed were boxcars and centerbeams, with some loaded ethanol tankers involved also. The power and first 15 cars were not involved, and once cleared by Mechanical forces, were moved west to the small yard at Darling. Main 2 reopened today at approx. 1200hrs AZ time with a 30mph restriction on it.
Plus; BNSF is not a proponent of psr.
Also unknown that PSR style long trains were involved in this derailment. Lion’s share of traffic on this line is Intermodal, and a lot of that is service dependent premium domestic service, but yeah it’s possible it could’ve involved a less service dependent ocean container train which could in theory hold at origin to build length or one of the manifest or unit trains that ply this route.
Maybe extra long consists under PSR are not such a good idea?
You are risking shipments by sticking one possibly bad car with many more good ones. And all it takes is one bad one.
Pretty soon the insurance companies will come along and tell them to check for bad cars or reduce the size of the consist.
While the causes are unknown and are not sure if they are similar, I am wondering if some of these cars that were pushed out to storage for 3, 4 or 5 years on some siding on the Chicago, Timbuktoo & Pacific are coming back into service and causing problems.
Yikes! That’s too bad. I hope all will be ok soon.
Mr. Roberts, Mr. Risjan – did you actually read the story? No need for creating drama where none should exist.