UP 4014 | Brakes Lock and Catch Fire on Excursion Car

Sunday, July 14th, 2024:
While chasing the UP 4014 excursion, which was running between Roseville and Sparks, we found ourselves at our third spot, being Andover. As the train approached, we heard on the scanner, "a car is smoking." Once the train came around the curve, we realized the brakes on one of the excursion cars were locked, resulting in the brakes catching fire. The train stopped not too long after passing us, and we could see the smoke down the line. It was unexpected, and thankfully nobody was hurt. The crew was able to handle the situation quickly, and get the train moving again not too long afterwards.
Full chase video coming soon

[@RailsoftheNortheast]

Title and description have been corrected.

[@century242]

I was on the train and we didn’t use an emergency application to stop.

[@brucegordon4992]

How long were you stopped? Safe guess the crew fixed the problem and there was no significant damage?

[@century242]

@@brucegordon4992 why ask a question if you already knew the answer?

[@brucegordon4992]

@@century242 I am making a guess based on knowledge that there was no significant damage as the UP 4014 train seems to be getting enough attention from both train fans and the general media that there would have been more than this video had the fire done serious damage. However beyond that I only asked the because I do not know. I have no idea how long you were stopped. And I am wondering if the crew on the train fixed it or did they have to bring other people to the train? I am of the belief that the crew with the train have skills and some parts to keep the actual steam locomotive operational and repaired. I am not certain they also have the skills and parts for the cars though.

[@nathanschmidt4889]

​@@brucegordon4992 rule states 10 minutes at least to let the pads cool off, plus a class 3 for good measure, so I'd imagine somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 minutes. Not too bad

[@OldFart2023]

@@nathanschmidt4889 The rule is for the wheels to properly cool, NOT the brake shoes (NOT pads)

[@jamesmckenzie3532]

Wasn't an emergency stop. It was a locked up set of brakes.

[@shmoop2481]

Good lord they didn't go into emergency. Can railfans please quit with the dramatic titles to their videos? The car had a brake hanging up. Just another day on Donner. I've seen freights come down in blue all the time.

[@oxhog5925]

Nice one Moop

[@AbelG8781]

Agreed. Foamers and their clickbait titles are just awful.

[@overly7997]

Good lord get a life

[@FairyTailNRTX]

For real it’s cringe

[@overly7997]

They said emergency on the scanners

[@GaryA]

Fast action by the crew!

[@andrewbethune5]

Didn’t know using a simple phrase in a video title would piss off so many people…

[@jankington216]

And the people crying are saying OP is the one making a big deal of things

[@steelman86]

Pretty amazing that anything would ever go wrong with a U.P. CAR as they are highly maintained, especially their Heritage fleet! However, no matter how much attention is given to a mechanical part, it can still fail! Not a big deal when YOUR FLEET is traveling on YOUR RAILS though! I understand when their Heritage fleet consist is traveling, it ALWAYS has right of way!! No public schedules of their travel are available because of the high profile passengers sometimes on board!

[@zachycards]

so it looks as though UPP 200 Omaha had the locked brakes. @ <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="60">1:00</a> you can see a bit of sparks erupt from the front truck of UPP 200. And it also looks like @ <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="61">1:01</a> some fire on the other side of the rear truck of UPP 200 as well. So, from seeing both of these things, I can say with 100% certainty, that both trucks on UPP 200 had at least one brake in the locked position. Which would explain the vast amount of smoke that was generated. Edit: Upon closer inspection of the video. I can also confirm that the trailing axles of both trucks of UPP 200 had at least one brake in the locked position. This is confirmed by the sparks seen on the lead truck of UPP 200 @ ~<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="60">1:00</a> and the fire seen on the other side of the trailing truck of UPP 200 @ ~<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="61">1:01</a>

[@thisisjvh]

I was just on the other side of Tunnel 42 and saw the smoke coming from the back couple cars. Didn't see the brakes on fire, that's wild.

[@zdthelehighlinerailfan5362]

@Rails of the Northeast.... i bet the Crew had probably smelled the Smoke when they were going around the Curve?

[@Amtrakker]

Ya think?!

[@zdthelehighlinerailfan5362]

@@Amtrakker... Yeah they've noticed something was burning & smoking underneath on one of the cars

[@sop2510]

Brake smoke is normal with composition shoes. Appears as though the brakes are releasing a little slowly at the rear of the train.

[@thunderbolt5695]

when it was in roseville UP 1983 was in the consist already, so i took a picture of it

[@seawuff]

They added it in Portola

[@NCATrainsPlanesProduction]

wow that is inevitable

[@irfsourav]

Wow Fantastic 😍

[@pepsidoggo1598]

I don't really understand why people were so pissed off about the previous title. Locked up and burning brakes are something you'd absolutely need to make an emergency stop for.

[@OldFart2023]

NOT an emergency stop, just a plain old "unplanned" stop.

[@Renard380]

Actually no. Locked brakes could mean overheated wheels. You don't want to add even more stress to them.

[@BJHolloway1]

The big boy is a great piece of engineering and restoration but when I see many of such videos I am never sure how much effort the diesl engine is applying to the train.

[@railyardfilms6491]

Crazy

[@GaryCottle-lw3cx]

It's always hot in the West in July, too hot for crew and passengers. We watched Big Boy fly by Fernley NV. I hope the passenger cars had a good air conditioner. I wrote to U.P. and requested they come back in the cool spring weather.

[@jenniferroberts7581]

It was not very hot that day over Donner - maybe 70F when the train made it over late. It rained earlier that day.

[@LearnwithJanice]

Hello from Kansas 🇺🇲

[@athanalconcel9083]

It's like what happened to Runaway train 1985

[@Cwilliam1999]

That’s what I call a hot box

[@tomp8871]

You are correct

[@OldFart2023]

NOT a "hot box", NOT a hot journal. The heat from the sticking brake can "travel" to the journal, making it warm but two entirely different things.

[@Renard380]

A hot box has nothing to do with brakes locking up, it's caused by failing bearings. This is not a hot box.

[@3henry214]

First the tree near Auburn, and then this? Those guys just couldn't catch a break. And the behavior of some of the people along the tracks, staying way too close... I wouldn't be surprised if when another trip out here is proposed, Ed Dickens says "Hell NO!"

[@genedejong5513]

Ja! and dere's old Rover, youst loping along on three legs, pissing on der hotbox!

[@RScottPR]

I can smell it just looking at it.

[@Tesingaccount12Productions]

Bro it hit a tree and had its brakes catch fire on the same day

[@NortheastFlicksNEF]

All people do is complain about every bit of incorrect information in videos, good video nonetheless!

[@jamesm6638]

I mean if you're gonna post something that potentially millions of people could see, it's your job to make sure the information you're passing on is correct. Correct information makes people smarter, incorrect information makes people dumber. Pretty simple concept.

[@arlingtontrains7]

Darn brakes

[@WasatchGarandMan]

Wow a comedy of errors on the trip up donner

[@1chuck96]

Nobody in here seems to address exactly what caused the lock-up

[@OldFart2023]

Malfunction in the brake valve.

[@sunking2001]

Does anyone know how it was corrected?

[@OldFart2023]

Hard set and release of the train brakes, manually bleed the car brake and/or cut out the brake valve.

[@maxcleveland3446]

Hot brake.. Ho-Hum..

[@MatecaCorp]

This trip hasn’t been going great

[@kiefershanks4172]

Hot wheel, axle 71

[@DarrellLewis-vb8xx]

Some one left a handbrake on ?

[@OldFart2023]

Possibly, someone on the crew should have checked ALL the handbrakes at the initial terminal where a #1 brake test should have been performed.... Or some dunce with "itchy fingers" tampered with it at some point.

[@Boxpok]

I bet that smelled……🤢