Cleaning up the Horseshoe Curve Derailment, Rerailing Derailed Train Railcars, Norfolk Southern MOW

Horseshoe Curve Derailment
Norfolk Southern MOW crews at HSC National Historic Landmark, NS 34A mixed freight car derailment site clean up and track repair with maintenance of way, side booms, and hi-rail trucks filmed from the west side of Horseshoe Curve in July 2019 the day after the derailment near Altoona, PA, USA, with conditional stop at milepost MP PT 242 on the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line in the NS Pittsburgh Division by Super Trains
On July 5, 2019, at 8:40 PM, 11 freight cars derailed from westbound NS 34A on their way up the mountain on track 3 at world famous Horseshoe Curve PT242. The engines broke away shortly after and the train cars braked to a stop. Some cars fell over blocking track 2. The wreck was cleaned up promptly and all three tracks were reopened in the days following the derailment. There were no reported injuries. The cause is under investigation.
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[@timrowland1490]

These operators dam sure know what they are doing. My hats off to all! My father would get a phone call and leave for days when I was young, now I know why, he worked as an emergency operator with northfolk and southern railroad in the 70’s. Now I know!

[@gwharton68]

Always something new. Never have seen a hi-rail dump truck before. Really a tough spot to work in.

[@sergiochavez9577]

The people they are working hard, great video thanks

[@williamschlenger1518]

Remember when the railroads used Bucyrus Erie work trains to do this.

[@joelvale3887]

It takes seconds to derail and days to clean up the mess.

[@Gizmologist1]

Hopewfully a few people aere looking for work after assembling a train to INVITE straightlining and doing it THREE times!

[@user-ve4iq7of1j]

БОГ В ПОМОЩЬ,РАБОТЯГАМ!!!!!!

[@allenmurray7893]

I think they left a couple of center beam cars and some roller wheels along the side, at least for now.

[@paulsimkins3895]

Anyone have a video of the wreck when it happened

[@taslimchoudhary1253]

Nice Video 🇮🇳

[@bogusbits6810]

Have they removed the cars they tossed over the hill?

[@briancooper562]

Time seems to be of the essence. All we need now is Parker from Gold Rush. At least the Cat tractors seem to have rubber blocks on the tracks. But the rails are still getting a hammering as plant crosses the tracks. Is this plant, which is designed for pipe laying, kept central by the railway or is there a 'list' of private operators that can be called on as and when?

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Not sure of 1/2 what you said but all major rerailing operations for class 1 railroads is contractors. Hulcher, rj Corman, winter's rigging, steel city, cranemasters, etc. They've been using sidewinder since the 70's. Took all the carman wrecking jobs away.

[@judpowell1756]

they didn't clean it up....they opened it...clean up later

[@robertheinkel6225]

Do the high rail trucks, have a special transmission, that allows them to travel fast in reverse?

[@TheNemosdaddy]

No. Big tires, little wheels

[@paulsimkins3895]

Are they still cleaning up after the wreck

[@williamschlenger1518]

The track looks well maintained. Maybe the trains are too long for that curve.Just like a model train layout.

[@nodoubter9204]

the cars they are rerailing will they be back in service or moved to scrap?

[@robertheinkel6225]

Depends on the damage to the car.

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Depends on damage, value of car and car owners wishes.

[@LeonardO-bi9yy]

Thank you

[@ggcoyleg]

Where are you shooting from?

[@85308arizonaboy]

They are never going very fast I wonder what caused the derailment..??

[@southeasternpennsylvaniara1588]

Kevin Finn the yard job who added the cars to the train put the empty cars and than the loaded cars, so because they were empty, the locomotives pulling it just caused the cars to tip over.

[@oldspguy4786]

@Kevin Finn - This is called a "string-line" derailment. Caused when empties are placed ahead of loads or when a long train doesn't have mid-train helpers and too much pulling power on the head end (or both). In curves, drag causes the middle of the train to move slower than the head end causing the lighter cars to topple inward. Any Yard Crew or Yardmaster that doesn't know how to stack a consist for the grade should be working in the fast-food industry. UPDATE: It appears now that 100% of the blame for this is on Management (surprise, surprise). They're forcing employees to build their trains using some sort of worthless computer flow-chart system.

[@IlikeCatF]

So your saying is the heavier cars should have been right behind the locomotives pulling and light or empty cars on the end?

[@oldspguy4786]

@@IlikeCatF Yes that would have probably prevented this but if the train were really long there should have been a helper cut-in mid train. The point there is to keep the middle of the train moving at the same pace as the head end to take the torsional stress off the cars behind the lead engines. On the SP, we had some pretty tough hills that combined steep grades with a lot of curves. In particular was the line over Tehachapi Pass on the Mojave Sub. That line consists of a steady 2.2% grade with many 10 degree curves including multiple horseshoes and a loop. It was pretty common in those days to see a train with 24 axles of power on the head end and up to 48 axles of power cut into the middle as a "swing helper". Since westbound trains were always superior to eastbound trains on the SP, most eastbounds climbing the grade would at some point have to go in the hole to clear a westbound. That meant often having to restart a train on a 2.2% grade while wound through half a dozen curves. The heavy cut of power mid-train made this possible. But that was then. Today railroads try to get a train over a mountain with as little power as possible with the results showing in this video. On Tehachapi, UP has experienced quite a few string-line derailments because they try to run their trains mid-west style with all the power on the head-end and maybe 1 or 2 engines on the tail end.

[@robertmuckey887]

I wonder if the cleanup crew is part of thecompany that was featurge in the special trains mag. of train wreaks?

[@smokemyshorts]

I don't know, but I just read that article about two weeks ago. It was good. Interesting line of work.

[@ianbob3050]

Hulcher Services..probably the crew from Gettysburg PA

[@curtnicholson7771]

Is this from yesterday's derailment, the second one in a week?

[@timothystevenhoward]

this was the first derailment 3 weeks ago

[@Raptorman0909]

Twice in three weeks -- someone needs to find another job as building consists aint there forte...

[@thangquocnguyenmdp]

The rails just laid flat on those timbers then put on the ground then pour rocks on it but nothing to anchor it down....

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Wrong. Theres shit tons of spikes anchoring it down. Especially in such a heavily curved area.

[@oldspguy4786]

Those Hulcher cats driving all over the rails and roadbed isn't a good thing and it looks like they're doing more damage to the cars than the derailment itself. Gee wiz don't these companies own a Big Hook anymore?

[@currentbatches6205]

The caption says these are NS MoW crews, not a contractor.

[@cstraws]

Once cleaned up the track crews will come in and tidy things up. A rail geometry car will be used to make sure everything is repaired properly.

[@IlikeCatF]

They have more control using the mobile Cat units over using a crane on the rails.

[@oldspguy4786]

I guess I probably didn't word my original comment too well. What I was essentially trying to get at is why RR companies today seem to "outsource" everything. I can remember when we used to own all the necessary equipment and take care of these things ourselves. Oh well, Changing Times I guess.

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Its Hulcher services from Gettysburg and Washington PA no railroad owns wrecking equipment anymore. The cars will be assessed for damage, and either home shopped for repairs, loaded up on special flat cars for repairs or scrapped.

[@thangquocnguyenmdp]

The title of this video should be changes to noisy, noisy and more noisy

[@makeamericagreatagain7314]

Job security

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

last year's rattlesnake was more interesting than this.