NS derailment in Columbus, Ohio

What a tough two weeks for NS! The coal train derailment and now this. Hopefully everyone escaped injury. Sounds like Columbus has the appropriate resources and a well trained Haz-Mat team to deal with such an emergency. 

Watched ABC news this morning live pictures.  Appears train derailed on large broad radius curve.  My (uneducated) guess is sun kink rail(s)??

Proabably not a sun kink at that time in the morning, more likely a wheel failure or bearing.

I assumed that once rails kinked they didn't go back when cooled down.  Yes most likely  your hypothesis.  Fun being armchair RR and speculating all manner of scenerios.  Just have to wait for report to be issued a year or so from now, at which point everyone has forgotten this news item.

With the amount of traffic running on this line if it was a sun kink or track failure it proabably would've  caused problems earlier than this morning. I'm sure its gonna be a pain in the butt cleaning that up and putting all that curved rail back in.

Have the NS officials disclosed what is burning? I know a HAZMAT team is on site.

Thank god none of the cars turned into a BLEVE.

(Reuters) - A Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and burst into flames in Columbus, Ohio, early on Wednesday, forcing nearby residents to evacuate, authorities said.

The 98-car southbound train, with two locomotives, was carrying ethanol, and fire officials were letting the biofuel burn itself out, said Columbus Assistant Fire Chief Dave Whiting. He said 10 cars derailed and about three ruptured.

Is this "bleved" some sort of new railroad term?

BLEVE= Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion is the true meaning known to firefighters and hazardous materials specialists. Its known to happen with railroad tank cars and fuel trucks. or you could go with this meaning

BLEVE- Blast Levels Everything Very Easily.

Thanks. So they should all be capital letters then. 

I b'lieve you're right, Hot Water!

Here's a youtube video that explains how a BLEVE happens. They mention the spring loaded relief valve closing and opening. Where I used to work they also added a rupture disc at a slightly higher pressure then the relief valve, When the rupture disc failed it did not close and was a positive vent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM0jtD_OWLU

franktrain  

Ethanol tank cars

A steam boiler explosion would count as a BLEVE.

I don't think water - even when turned into steam - satisfies the "explosion" part.  While the boiler itself explodes, I'm pretty sure a BLEVE requires something that is combustible - such as liquid propane.  Here's a great example showing a propane tank, and including a very good explanation.

Respectfully, flammability of a tank's contents is not a necessary condition in order to have a BLEVE.

Wikipedia has a thorough explanation of the BLEVE phenomena. 

While we often associate BLEVEs with container failure caused by heat, mechanical (such as impact damage) or chemical (such as acid erosion) injury can and has caused BLEVEs.

Anybody know about the CVSR wreak?

A couple of neighborhood guys weren't pay attention and drove their pickup into the loco at a rural crossing.  They were charged.  Weren't wearing seatbelts either.

Tony

I think nkptomo was talking about the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad accident today. An Elderly woman apparently drove through the crossing signal right in front of the southbound train on Portage rd. She didn't survive. That's what the news is reporting anyway.

If you watch this video http://www.12newsnow.com/story...derailment-explosion at :35 you see the explosion. I'm not an expert, but that looks like a BLEVE to me.

@Win86 - I stand corrected, a boiler explosion is a perfect example of a BLEVE.  Thanks!