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Thank you for posting the Amtrak derailment, I hadn't heard about it.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve ridden Amtrak’s Coast Starlight several times and will never understand why trains continue hitting trucks at railroad crossings. Why can’t they just stay off the tracks? 🤔
Gratefully nobody perished in this accident.
However, a fairly new SC42 was heavily damaged; not sure if this ends this locomotive's career. Below link has a picture of the crunched up nose of the SC42.
@WBC posted:Gratefully nobody perished in this accident.
However, a fairly new SC42 was heavily damaged; not sure if this ends this locomotive's career. Below link has a picture of the crunched up nose of the SC42.
I am no expert on locomotive construction, but I don't think the damage is actually too severe. The nose of the locomotive did what it is designed to do...absorb impact. It may look pretty ugly, but a new nose and windshield should put it back in service pretty quickly. There didn't appear to be any misalignment of the frame or trucks. A full inspection of the unit will reveal the final outcome.
The vehicle that got hit is another story. Big scrap pile.
Tom
It would seem that either the truck was stalled/stuck on the crossing, or that the driver made a crazy last-minute decision to cross right in front of the train (which would have cleared the crossing in just a matter of seconds if he had been willing to wait).
Apparantly he was a county employee cleaning out a ditch near the tracks and "parked" his truck on the tracks while working. If true this exceeds trying to beat the train for stupidity. Fortunately injuries were not too serious.
Wow -- that would take the Darwin prize for sure. I read that the driver had to be take to the local trauma center because of head injuries, which suggests that if he had actually parked the truck on the tracks, then he may have been attempting to move it right ahead of the collision.
The accident was 40 miles south of me. Luckily, no Coast Starlight cars turned over. However, MetroLink (DTLA to Ventura and vice versa) was stopped for the day+. The Surfliner (San Diego to San Luis Obispo) was likewise stopped but I think some trains were running from SLO to Ventura.
Good question as to WHY someone drives his truck on a railroad track with a train coming (or parks there for convenience). 
@rthomps posted:The accident was 40 miles south of me. Luckily, no Coast Starlight cars turned over. However, MetroLink (DTLA to Ventura and vice versa) was stopped for the day+. The Surfliner (San Diego to San Luis Obispo) was likewise stopped but I think some trains were running from SLO to Ventura.
Good question as to WHY someone drives his truck on a railroad track with a train coming (or parks there for convenience).
Well, even the law enforcement folks and emergency responders, i.e. fire trucks, seem to find it convent to "park on the tracks", without notifying the railroad.
I live up on the Gaviota coast, and I have not heard any trains go by for 2 days.
I saw 2 Surfliners go by, so I think the Coast line is back open.
That article reads like it was written by a fourth grader. Absolutely awful.
Journalism is dead.
@Rich Melvin posted:That article reads like it was written by a fourth grader. Absolutely awful.
Journalism is dead.
They’re too busy doing Tik Tok videos to care.
Rich
And it was from the BBC, how the mighty have fallen
