Amtrak Derailment Outside Philadelphia

Also being covered by the Fox News Network.  Several passenger cars are lying on their sides.  Dozens of first responders are on the scene, searching for survivors, and triaging them.

Looks like it could have hit a CSX train. 

I am watching this on the news too. So far no deaths but some people were injured. I hope no one is killed in this crash. Just speculation so far on the cause. The news said something about a curve. 

This is a news video clip....... May 12th, 2015 10:45 PM

The latest information is 40-60 people injured. Estimated 200 were on board. No deaths reported, thank the Lord. The front end of the train has the most damage. Dark pictures show 8-10 cars on their sides, still coupled together.

 

Chris

LVHR

Unfortunately, Philadelphia Mayor Nutter made a very preliminary announcement of five fatalities.  Estimated 243 on board:  5 crew and 238 passengers.  No further details... and again he emphasized everything is very preliminary at this point.

 

David

Yes, I saw Mayor Nutter saying "I,ve never seen anything like this in my life". This is a very bad wreck, will pray for the survivors......

Very eerily familiar:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki...Junction_train_wreck

From CNN.com
"The cause of the derailment was unknown, but Amtrak said it was investigating. The area where the derailment occurred is known as Frankford Junction and has a big curve."

Not good at all. Amfleet car shredded. Reminds me of that Gunpow Interlocking "Colonial" January 1987 Maryland high speed drug related accident. At any rate the damage it took to shred that Amfleet car, some serious speed?

Tonight's damage.

1943 Frankford Junction

Gunpow Jct 1987

Gunpow Jct Amfleet cars destroyed similarly to tonight's Frankford event.

I had hoped we were past these types of accidents in our country. Japan seems to avoid deaths despite the incredible number of passengers they move in a day. Sad day for Amtrak and the families of those who were killed tonight. Tough deal.

Here is a screen-shot of the Port Richmond area of Philly.  The reported curve is in the northern-most portion of the red-shaded area of Port Richmond, and the thicker grey line depicts the multi-track mainline of Amtrak's Northeastern Corridor in the area.

 

 

It will be very interesting to hear more details as they unfold. 

 

Back in the 1980's/1990's I traveled Amtrak almost daily, and this is near a very urbanized area of North Philadelphia.  Unless things have changed from when I rode Amtrak, passenger trains typically move slowly through this area due to rail traffic, although trains could go 50-60MPH in clear conditions.  The nearby locale is very reminiscent of an old dilapidated, worn down movie lot.  It is not typically an area of the Northeastern Corridor where Acela trains move at much higher speeds in excess of 80+ MPH -- more typical after leaving the Princeton, NJ area.

 

Philly's main 30th Street Station is a few minutes off to the left of the map (slightly south and west), and Trenton is several minutes from the upper right portion of the map (slightly north and east).

 

David

Actually on the map, Philly's 30th Street Station is down towards the left of the map (passing North Philadelphia Station first) and Trenton is towards the upper right of the map.  The accident scene is inside the city limits but northeast of downtown.

 

The line that diverges to the right from the junction is the New Jersey Transit line to Atlantic City.

 

I don't know if those tank cars on the siding next to where the ACS-64 #601 came to rest are full or not, but thank God they didn't get hit if they were.

Brian, thanks for the correction!!!   I can't believe I mixed up my left/right in my post.   It was such a glaring and silly error, I corrected my post!  My bad.

 

David

Been through there many times.....my prayers are for the victims.

 

Peter

rode this line daily years ago always found some engineers drove way faster than others betting on speed being a factor again

Latest CNN reports are saying a sixth person had died at Temple u. med ctr. due to this derailment. cause of death in the victims is being reported as Severe Chest Compression.

in an effort to be relevant and important, NYC news comments about the 'dangerous' curve at Frankford Junction, despite 100's of train passages through it DAILY without incident.

 

more intelligent minds will wait for the NTSB report.

 

Thanks so much for the map posted. It is frustrating when news folks do not do so.

Strange how was recently reading about the 1943 Frankford Jct accident. Very creepy seeing images of the same cause of death repeated 70 years later. The catenary masts acted as knives to the cars in effect tearing them apart according to an article published in 1943.

NY news reports all Amtrak service is suspended between Philly and NY. NJ Transit is cross honoring Amtrak tickets on the N.E.C. and the River Line. NJ transithas also  suspended the A.C. line between Cherry Hill NJ and 30th St Philly.

       
       


I am sure video surveillance footage will be found. Seems like in this age it's everywhere. It will be good to see what the NTSB concludes. I'm deeply depressed over this.

I've traveled this often, and I can't say I remember a major curve on the Amtrak tracks. There are, however, many turn-outs that take NJ Transit trains over to NJ in the crash area. I would not be surprised if a turn-out malfuntion was the cause.

 

 

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/...ls-gallery-1.2220132

The media irritates the heck out of me.

Scroll down to this image:



And they state: "Twisted tracks can be seen in the foreground as rescue workers look over the wreckage of Amtrak Train 188. The passenger train went off the rails at a junction bend, killing five and injuring dozens, late Tuesday night in northeast Philadelphia."

WHAT TWISTED TRACK!!!!???

You simply can't fix stupid. The muckrakers are at it again!

The compression foreshortened nature of this telephoto shot with a long lens shows off the Frankford Jct curve. The rail lying between the tracks is typical of maintenance work. But where this media outlet gets "twisted tracks" from this photo is a mystery to me.

Just seen this on Yahoo.com news, and they claim 243 people were on board to include the passengers and train crew, over 130 hurt & injured, 6 dead. 9:30 am NYC time.

 

No mention about the twisted tracks as seen in one of the photos.

There are two things that I can think of for that; first going too fast and second very bad track maintenance. There could be other factors as well but let the NTSB decide who is at fault.

 

Lee Fritz

I just found out that my son-in-law was on this train, and got off at his regular stop in Philadelphia.

Photo's on CNN.

 

Rusty

An aerial view shows the one coach bent in two and flattened-that surprised me. They must be old, the newer coaches in several recent accidents appeared to maintain better structural integrity.  I would guess the fatalities were in that one coach. No photos of the engine I wonder if the engineer is OK ?? 

Let the FRA, NTSB and Amtrak do the investigation, the so called Black Box as mentioned on the news, is the event recorder, the download from this device with provide valuable data to these three investigating agencies. Also from experience, both the track and signal systems will be completely checked for compliance and operation, records of the mandatory FRA daily inspections for equipment, locomotive and cars, placed in service yesterday will be checked as well as Amtrak Mechanical Department documented maintenance records of this equipment, also an onsite visual inspection of the locomotive and passenger cars for possible cause of the derailment is conducted.

I graduated high school with the woman who is missing in the wreck.  Prayers for all those affected by this tragedy.

 

This is such an awful situation...a horrible derailment involving death and injury, the aftermath of which is being compounded by uninformed and irresponsible reporting in most sectors. I finally had to just shut off the coverage as it was positively nauseating.

 

I'm praying for all involved, including those who must now go to work trying to figure out what happened. 

 

Note to Jim Pastorius who inquired about the Engineer...he survived. 

 

Bob    

Yeah, that is odd, as I, too, just read about this over the previous weekend!

Nasty accident, my bet is speed is the cause, that brand new Semens electric is a bit banged up, like to see if it runs again( CNN photo). for 6.6 million I hope it does they are nice engines. The engines and cars can be replaced the folks that died cannot.

 

I just read the article about the 1943 accident.  That accident was caused by an overheated journal box that caused an axel to snap.  

 

There is a lot of speculation about the cause of yesterday's accident.  We won't know for sure until the investigation is completed.

 

Joe

 

 

If you can find a copy, the Outer Station Project published a book authored by Ben Bernhart about the Congressional Limited derailment. It's quite an interesting and informative read.

 

This is the cover: 

 

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/...ls-gallery-1.2220132



I'm not speculating; observation may surmise that the track went left and gravity decided the train was going to continue on its then current trajectory, straight. Speed? Broken wheel? Track failure?

NTSB we are holding our breath on this one.

I know this is dumb.. What happened to ATS? Or fail safes? Terrorism? Cyber attack on ATS system?

All good questions.

CNBC is reporting that the train was going twice the limit (100mph) at the time of the crash. 

That looks pretty believable - - - curve, centrifugal force, and the path of the train.

Now THAT is interesting. That may explain the report of the Engineer refusing to answer any questions from the Police Detectives, until his legal representative is present.