PARADISE, Mont. — Another day, another derailment. Or so it seems.
Some 25 cars of a Montana Rail Link train derailed west of the town of Paradise, with some of the cars entering the Clark Fork River, CNN reports. The derailment occurred about 9:20 a.m., with no injuries reported.
Photographs suggest the train was a mixed manifest freight; the Missoulan newspaper reports one derailed car contained hazardous material — butane — but none was released. The Missoulan website earlier showed a photo of men in a boat recovering beer spilled from a mechanical refrigerator car. Other than beer, the only other material known to have been spilled was some powered clay.
KPAX-TV reports the accident occurred near a popular resort, Quinn’s Hot Springs. The Sanders County Sheriff’s Office reports the derailment poses no hazard. The resort’s manager told the station that some guests have been evacuated from their cabins because of noise and potential risk, with the derailment posing “and inconvenience to the comfort and stay of [our] guests.”
The Missoulan reported some cars were derailed inside a tunnel, and said some of the rail roadbed appeared to have collapsed into the river. Montana Rail Link spokesman Andy Garland told the newspaper it was unclear how long it would take to clear the scene and reopen the route.
The derailment site is about 50 miles northwest of Missoula.
— Updated at 9:55 p.m. CDT with details on carload of butane, other information.
Six relatively major derailments in the space of as many days towards the end of March, on BNSF, CP, CN, NS, UP and now MRL, in 6 states – Alabama, California, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, including a 55 car runaway off a mountain, a fiery blaze and evacuation, and one plunging down an embankment into a river. How is this not national headline news, coming just weeks after East Palestine?!
How is this any different than a semi carrying hazardous materials careening off of a freeway, bridge or slamming into stopped traffic? Or even a commercial passenger plane crashing with all or most lives lost? This derailment was relatively minor in comparison. Others were not. Its all a matter of proportion. And the media gets its kicks on large proportion incidents no matter the reality of the danger, great or small…
As has been stated, until the buff forces of longer and longer trains is reduced by common sense or legislation, these things will continue to happen and people will be in harms way.
“According to the press release, the railcars that did reach the river were either empty or carrying Coors Light and Blue Moon beer. There is not beer floating down the river and is secured in the derailment area.”
LOL.
Kayakers going down the Clark Fork on Easter would find a new kind of easter egg floating by them. Talk about “up to your boat” service.
The telemetry device tells the engine crew when rear end of train is in motion and what the air pressure is. The engine crew can also make braking applications from the rear end.
Brake applications can be made from the rear end if there’s a DPU on the end. Otherwise, unless something has changed, the only brake application an EOT device or FRED can make is an emergency dump.
Only a DPU can make a brake application from the rear, and that is just mimicking the headend
I will repeat my comment of several days ago. I really believe that these ridiculously long trains are putting excessive undetected wear and tear on the axle, bearing and wheel assemblies of freight cars. As a result, they are failing down the road on ensuing trains. As more and more cars are subjected to these stresses, the derailment rate keeps becoming more frequent. I think this is something the FRA needs to look into.
Have they already determined the cause? Ididn’t see that in the article.
The ridiculously long trains have distributed power which greatly reduces drawbar pull and string-lining. That’s the good part. The bad part is that the head-end crew doesn’t know what’s going on with the rear end of the train which is in a different county or maybe in a different state.
…or different time zone.
“Some of the cars entering the Clark Fork River”? Trains writers, since when do you put things that way? That’s in the same vein as the Amtrak official who said his train “lost contact with the rails”.
Just in time so this will not be charged to BNSF!