Updated 4/20/14...Double Stack hits 3 bridges in Milwaukee!

Where is the rest of stacks? Is that the only One?

There was only 1 put on that train according to the report. But I was also wondering when it came off, didn't it do any damage to any other cars behind it?

This car was put on in Chicago, so maybe it was the last car on the train?

Interesting.  Here it is when not bashed up.

I can see Barry working on a DCS function to raise the thing coming up to overpasses to simulate this accident like Gomez 

New Rule #1:  The conductor and other operating employees of every train shall verify the height of any rail cars under their control.

New Rule #2: The conductor and other operating employees of every train shall verify the height clearances of every overhead obstruction on the route assigned to them.

Seems pretty darned simple. Actually, I didn't think this all up by myself. I had help. My cat asked me to write this for him.

Here come the inevitable questions from the foamers:

"Which is the front?"

"How do they turn it around at the end of the run...on a turntable?"

"When will (choose your favorite manufacturer) make one?"

So I take it, it usually goes on the first car behind the engine?

For aerodynamics, makes sense.

Here is another story about it.

http://www.wisn.com/news/train...reet-bridge/25138622

Sure looks like it was going backwards when it hit the bridge!

Shows you how much cats know.

Somewhere in America somebody is having a REALLY BAD day.

As stated in the UP's Chicago Area Timetable #4 for the Milwaukee Subdivision (0152) Rule SI-13 Train Make-Up Restrictions "Cars in excess of 19 feet above the top of rail are prohibited from operating between MP 80.1 St. Francis and MP 96.8 Butler. Restriction includes double stack container loads."  

Uhh..but it wasn't a container boss...It looked like a upside down boat 

Some 20 or so years ago, a "high - wide" car somehow got through Minneapolis on, what was then the Soo Line RR, and train wound-up down in Chicago. The headend, with three SD40-2 units got stopped at a very busy RR interlocking shortly after midnight, and the crew was told that they would be there, stopped for 3, 4 or more hours. The Soo Line crew notified their Dispatcher, and since they where getting close to going dead, the Dispatcher told them to tie-down their train, and a crew van was sent out to pick up both the headend and reared crew members.

Some 4 hours later, the relief crew was sent out by van, with the reared crew being dropped off at the caboose, and the headend crew dropped off at the headend locomotive consist. After all the preliminary air tests and release of hand brakes was completed, the Conductor radioed the interlocking tower operator, that they could proceed whenever the tower operator could take them. After about another 45 min to an hour, the interlocking operator gave them the signal to proceed. The Engineer released his train air and slowly began moving forward, but the train stalled after only 15 or so feet. The Engineer, backed up about a unit length, and tried again, with the same results; stalled within a few feet past his first stalling point.

The Engineer then radioed the reared, and inquired if they did indeed get a full air release, and was there any movement on the caboose. The response was, yes the train line was indeed pumped up, but they had felt no movement. The Engineer back up about a unit length again, and this time, came out to throttle 2 or 3, with his three big SD40-2 units! Surprisingly, the whole thing came to a halt AGAIN, but this time about 10 feet further than where he had stalled previously. Now the Engineer knew something was VERY WRONG, so the Head Brakeman was sent back to inspect the train, while the Rear Brakeman was dispatched forward to inspect the rear of the train.

As luck would have it, the sun was just beginning to come up, and about 40 or so cars back in the train, the huge "high - wide" load was seriously up against an overhead CTA bridge! What with the Engineer's three times to try and start his train, the "high - wide" load had dislodged the overhead CTA bridge by more than 6 feet! After much panic radio conversations, and the two Brakemen climbing the embankments, the next CTA was stopped short of the damaged bridge, and no CTA trains were derailed.

I never did learn how that "high - wide" car got all the way to Chicago, especially since the Conductor had absolutely NO PAPERWORK on that car. However, it sure made the morning news in Chicago about that particular CTA line being closed down for quite some time! 

You can quote all of the rules and what not you want, but, don't blame the train crew. They didn't know it was in the train (a very common occurrence).

What the railroad commissioner said was..."Somehow a doublestack car got on that train" and the UP spokesman said..."The car that was interchanged with us somewhere in Chicago was put on a route that it shouldn't have been on".

Interestingly, it appears that only one individual girder on this bridge was damaged.

I hope someone posts the follow up story that is scheduled for later tonight.

That's interesting that the car was interchanged. If I recall correctly, the UP ArroWedge containers are all clearly marked 'Not for interchange'.  

It sure does!

Or perhaps the ArroWedge was facing the wrong way? After all, they did say that it shouldn't have been on the train in the first place. 

I'm surprised I've never seen a model of it in O gauge, since, ya know, UPRR is one of the four "can't lose" road names in O.

If I remember correctly about 12 years ago a BNSF double stack train was routed wrong and started threading it's way into Chicago. It got jammed under a low bridge and sat there for about a week until they decided what to do with it. Anybody else remember that? Seems it was sitting in view of the Ike or maybe Stevenson expressway?  

I don't think it happened on the BNSF, but I do remember a case on the former C&NW, not too long after the merger with Union Pacific. When the UP took over the dispatching duties of the former C&NW Chicago area lines, especially those with METRA commuter trains, everything went into the toilet. There was also an incident with a westbound stack train lined out of downtown on the wrong track. The Engineer of the train KNEW he was lined for the incorrect "high level" main track (normally used for coal & hopper trains), but was told to "FOLLOW SIGNAL INDICATION!". He did, and subsequently ripped the top containers off the first 25 to 20 well cars!!!! There were photos in most all the railfan magazines.

There are a couple locations in the St. Louis area on the former Missouri Pacific that are listed in the timetable with height restrictions. The bridges have been hit multiple time over the years. The best was during a strike when a company official brought a train up the Desoto Sub and cleaned the top off a couple auto racks and the cars with them.

The UP finally put up high/wide detectors on both sides of the restriction. They still get a train to hit the detector, but at least they don't get up the line to hit the bridge!

Dan 

A 20' version of the aerodynamic container can be made out of the undamaged end.

Andrew

Classic reply on the video from that train commissioner (?): "I'm not an engineer, but certainly when you look at a bridge, you don't want to see things broken."

Understatement.

Fred

I just read the news story at the beginning.  This is a quote:

"CREATED Mar. 24, 2014 - UPDATED: Mar. 24, 2014

MILWAUKEE -- One southbound lane of a Milwaukee bridge is closed indefinitely after being struck by train cargo, according to inspectors.

A train car with "air deflectors", a technology being tested by Union Pacific, was traveling from Chicago Monday afternoon when one of the deflectors damaged a girder under the bridge.

LOL!   Hey, I'm no orthopedist but when I look a my arm, I don't want to see it bent 90 degrees backwards at the elbow....

Arrowedge

Hi joe,

Here is a link to the UP announcement of the ArroWedge.

Now that is a real HOOT!

The UP announces the ArroWedge and the UP destroys the ArroWedge!!! 

What's next?  Streamlined LOCOMOTIVES?

Well, they get more fuel efficiency, but the top container holds a lot less goods!

There is also a full page article about them on P. 12 of May 2014 "Trains" magazine.

I wonder if the paper work (and computer) thought the load was a single stack, with the fancy new, experimental, streamline thingy not accounted for... until the laws of physics gets in the way.

The UP giveth and the UP taketh away.

It's their wedge and they'll smash if they want to (even when they DON'T want to, apparently)

LOST IN INTERCHANGE (Everyone Sing): "Where, oh where, has our ArrowWedge gone? Or where, oh where, can it be?"

Update;

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/255929101.html