Oh my.....what a photo!
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| Posted by Tugboat on March 26, 2010 | |
Would this be classified as a Whoops, huh..., or an ouchie?
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All I can say is... wow!
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A very close call.
Unless there was a mechanical problem, it will be hard not to blame the crew on this one.
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Are those bullet holes in the bridge operator's shack!?!
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Great photo! I saw coverage of this on CNN. I guess a lot of diesel fuel spilled into the canal. Sorry to see a small railroad have an accident like this.
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| Posted by JDay on March 27, 2010 | |
I can only imagine what management was saying when they got this call! What a mess.
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Wow...you may never top this photo, Chuck.
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Wow, just wow!
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| Posted by JR Leal on March 27, 2010 | |
Great catch of a classic type of accident, hopefully no injuries. Thanks for sharing.
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News accounts say the fuel tank ruptured.
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What I want to know is if the crew is ok.
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I caught this story on the local news as well.
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Murphy's Law played out in spectacular fashion. Wow!
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Update- The engine was removed 3/27/10. I don't know the status of the crew only that the news did not report any injuries. Approximately 1,800 gallons of diesel spilled into the waterway and the USCG can be seen on the lower left overseeing the fuel recovery. At this point, the Intercoastal Waterway has a mile of swamp on either side of this bridge. I walked down tracks from the north side and passed 2 sets of signals. The first, at 1 mile away is always "approach" and the second is stop. I'm going to surmise the same arrangement exists on the south side of the bridge. This bridge is unmanned and its my understanding the conductor follows the train in a van to open and close it. So far, I haven't heard any explanation as to the events behind this accident.
Yes, those are bullet holes in the bridge house.
This is a very unfortunate accident for any railroad, let alone a short line and the cost of repairing the bridge alone is going to be substantial.
The picture was taken with an EOS 5D MKII / 70-200mm F 2.8L, RAW 1.
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| Posted by Barry K on March 28, 2010 | |
Most of the dents in the shack (ones that are not actual holes) look more like large hail dents. The pattern the dents on the building match the pattern of hail dents in this area from a baseball sized massive hail storm from 2008. So I'm pretty sure half of those are hail dents.. in any case that is a horrible wreck!! I hope nobody was injured and I hope this didn't happen because the crew failed to do something.
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I saw this on the local news up here in Wisconsin the other night and they stated the engineer avoided injury. Sad to see this happen with a shortline railroad in this day and age with the economy.
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That's something you don't see every day.
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| Posted by Gary on March 29, 2010 | |
Some new undergarments for the crew I reckon, glad they are OK!
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Chuck, Great job on getting this rare type photo.
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The crew is also lucky that this rolling lift bridge design places the main body of the counterweights outside of the track (you can see the edge of the counterweight near the locomotive walkway by the second unit.) On many rolling lift bridges the majority of the counterweight sits directly in the path of the train like you can see in this other RP.net photo: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=312864&nseq=356
As badly as this loco is damaged it really only broke through the bracing for the counter weights, not the counterweights themselves. I imagine if the train had ran into a counterweight like the one in Mr. Freeland's photo the loco may not have ended up hanging over the river, but it would have been shortened considerably by the impact.
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So considerate of the rescue crew (looks like USCG) to wear colors that complement the paint scheme!
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While I do agree it is a very nice shot, I struggle with the thought that nearly always the "top photo's" of a certain time period, 24hrs, 48hrs, 2 weeks , what have you, seem to always be derailments. I have a feeling if you did this for a living, like myself and so many others, that this is more of a nightmare than anything. I'm not implying that anyone's made light of this situation at all, the comments have been very tasteful indeed, but there's something to be said about the people that try to avoid this every day. It is a very unforgiving atmosphere to work in to say the least.
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