Norfolk Southern Y90 Derailment Clean Up Altoona, PA 4.10.2021

[@markbickelhaupt4414]

Great video of R J Corman & Hulcher crews clean up the mess. Those sidewinders may have been designed to lift & carry pipeline pipe, but they takes care of fully loaded coal car like it's empty!

[@chiefguns1980]

That's where I go to observe trains in Altoona.

[@SuperBrookstone]

Hate to see a derailment but watching these talented people deal with the aftermath is amazing.! These guys just take care of business. Nothing is impossible to them..

[@CosmoC1991]

I was headed to the bar and drove passed right after the derailment happened. Pretty creepy cause no one was on scene yet.

[@ericsikma4764]

Neat perspective. This vid follows a radio conversation with everyone which follows a video summarizing the event itself. Cool chronology! Classic response heard over the radio: "Yeah, I've got 5 on the ground." "Well, THAT's not where you're supposed to be!" Oh, boy. LOL!

[@fredmauck6934]

I agree! The audio was so mater of fact, no emotion, just a normal day on the job for these people

[@philiphanlon9917]

Impressive job on the rerail!

[@sproulman1]

NS RR derailments ...Terrible management does not surprise me ....

[@anthonytidey2005]

Great video, love the details of the clear up, thoes converted bull dosers are great. In the UK the rail companies or Network Rail NR usually bring in mobile road crains to do the job. Presume the underside hopper doors were damaged so they could not operate so how would they get the coal out of the wagon. I think it was a bad decision that a our first femail PM made for the race for gas in the late 1970's early 1980's. As we (UK) had in excess of a 100 years with the fluidised bed coal burning, carbon capture and automatic sorting of household waste that govenment establiment perfected that she also close down, 30 to 40 years ahead of time. We and other countries could have been free of imports of stregic resource resource. Thanks for the video

[@tomt9543]

All these cars are coal gondolas that are rotary dumped at the destination. Most coal fired power plants in the US are/were equipped with rotary dump unloaders, many are capable of dumping two cars at a time. The bulldozers (railroaders call them sidewinders) are actually pipe laying machines built for constructing large cross country pipeline projects. The ones favored by railroad contractors are older units because they don’t have electronic controls that shut down the lift if the safe capacity is reached. These older units will keep lifting until the load moves or something breaks!

[@anthonytidey2005]

@@tomt9543 Thanks for the detailed information, I presumed that they were converted bulldozers, but now you said they were pipelayers, I have seen them in my oil magazines. Should have realized that they are inverted as you usually see a number of bottom shoots like the usual 3 on grainers. This is nicer for the RR as the bottom openers make a mess of the 4 foot, see ccrx 6700.

[@tomt9543]

@@anthonytidey2005 CCRX is a great behind the scenes channel! I watch it a lot! I retired two years ago after spending 41 years in the mechanical department of Southern Railway/Norfolk Southern clearing derailments (up until the early 90’s, we had a 250 ton capacity Derrick that we did all that work with, but the contractors put an end to that!) and dealing with the day to day struggle of keeping everything running. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch stuff like this on KZbin while sitting in the recliner knowing that I’ll never have to fight the fight again! Ha! When we still had the Derrick, it was priority to clear the mainline of derailed equipment and lay down track panels for the MofW guys to bolt together. The derailed cars and engines were typically set off to the side in the clear, and track feverishly thrown together so the dispatcher could resume running trains, even though it would require a slow order through the temporary track. After the backlog of trains had cleared, we bring “the hook” back onto the mainline and begin putting cars back on the track. Very hard work, and very long hours! I remember several instances where we worked in excess of 48 hours straight through just clearing the right of way and laying panels.

[@alexmodern6667]

@@tomt9543 I have a lot of RR friends n know exactly what your talking about. Thank you for your dedication n service to our Railroads. As you can probably already see there's a decline in the industry and things are not running as they should be nor are they maintenance as well as they should be. It's all about saving money and cutting here cutting there. Less hands to carry the load.

[@gleefullystruckbyccandtlos]

My town on youtube, how unexpected!😆 despite living here I never heard about the derailment in April! I have a picture I took from the foot bridge looking up at where it derailed sometime after they repaired the tracks and you'd never know there was a derailment there a few months back! There's been 3 derailments that I know of(counting this one) in that area over the years. One was in that exact area and the other was further up the line above the 17th st. Bridge. It's really interesting to see how the rerail the ones that have fallen off the track.

[@bradwhitfield3592]

That's a really interesting doc, man. Now they need to get up Cresson way off US 22. I live right off US 22 in Hollidaysburg, PA (smack dab next to Altoona)...talk about a hell of a job, that is going to be a nightmare cause it's right on the ledge hugging the mountain and there is NOT a lot of room to maneuver, not to mention that is the main line, too; busy, busy, busy. I'm interested to see how that mess will be sorted out!

[@anthonytidey2005]

Great video, love the details of the clear up, thoes converted bull dosers are great. In the UK the rail companies or Network Rail NR usually bring in mobile road crains to do the job. I presume the underside hopper doors were damaged so they could not operate so how would they get the coal out of the wagon. I think it was a bad decision that a our first femail PM made for the race for gas in the late 1970's early 1980's. As we (UK) had in excess of a 100 years

[@chuckgilly]

Those types of gondolas don't have belly doors, they use a rotary dumper.

[@leonardshutty6516]

There's on derailed going to Creeson now Been there for months report is their letting it there

[@nspittsburghlinerailfan4356]

love the video i was out yesterday morning and caught NS 592 Amtrak 42 & NS 20W & NS Helper set

[@steves2694]

Is there a means to separate reclaimed coal from ballast stone?

[@ryanv3751]

I don’t think I have ever seen a video of Hulcher and R.J. Corman moving a car together.

[@Mike44460]

Sidewinders doing what they do best.

[@4423422]

Excellent video so informative too. Site looks good for VRF site.

[@pennsylvanianrailfan]

I have asked VRF about putting one there but they said it was too close to Horseshoe Curve. It is only a few miles from the HSC

[@4423422]

@@pennsylvanianrailfan Horseshoe is so heavy handed on the camera. The train speed was slower than La Plata . The video was so real maybe the closeness, eye level shots and great sound. I guess it would be the same trains and not a family setting. More like Beria, O which don't show often. Nice try

[@pennsylvanianrailfan]

@@4423422 Yes, maybe I should see and ask again.

[@4423422]

@@pennsylvanianrailfan Wouldn't hurt. .And would be nice if they could get a good camera position close in. Most of their sites are scenic, but not like being there to see a train up close if it is not too fast. Sort of like the BNSF and Union Pacific in Rochelle IL. Good luck

[@justanotherghost4589]

Agreed, I'd love to see one either here at the pedestrian bridge or a little further down 9th Avenue under the 8th Street Bridge by the pipe and steel works, I can understand about it being a little too close to the HC but I'd probably like this a little more tbh, there's some good variety, like some local action, and with the right camera placement you can even see some signal action.

[@paulrowan1501]

Safety Fourth

[@tallmike6598]

4:24 Oscar..

[@Dachamp2001]

Sware NS be derailing on the regular

[@pennsylvanianrailfan]

I was there!

[@ChadsRailfanExperience]

Awwwww noooo

[@aadenlama2490]

I'm early