• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Anyone near E. Palestine, OH?

Share this page

White Star Line followed the rules too. They had sufficient lifeboats for the rules.

But not sufficient lifeboats for the people on board, over 1500 people died.

Titanic.jpg
 
Interesting topics for googling: freight railroad safety warnings, freight railroad staffing reductions, freight railroad train length increases, and freight train derailments.
 
By the way, if you want to watch a really good movie about and (almost) train disaster, check out "Unstoppable" with Denzel Washington.
 
" gingers crossed for the people and the environment."

Only red-headed people?

:devilgrin:
 
From an article in today's paper: There is an average of almost one train derailment every other day in California. 334 since the start of 2021. Obviously, most are not disasters, but that's a lot of "disasters waiting to happen."
 
John Turney said:
From an article in today's paper: There is an average of almost one train derailment every other day in California. 334 since the start of 2021. Obviously, most are not disasters, but that's a lot of "disasters waiting to happen."
Click to expand...
Yes it is
 
I listen to the BBC news hour every weekday and it’s been getting quite a bit of coverage but then their content is likely tailored to the market it’s aired in.
 
I'd heard some in Cleveland and Erie were worried about contamination... that made NO sense to me.
 
It's no wonder that there so many derailments, the rail system has been so neglected over the years most are in horrible condition. Cross a railroad and look down the rails, some are so crooked and uneven makes one wonder how anything can stay on them. I know they have been replacing the old wooden ties with concrete bolt ons but they still have a long way to go. The rail system needs help! Government funding, maybe if they don't give it all away to other countries! :rolleyes2:
 
Agreed!

One of the reasons Amtrak was created, was that railroads made more money on freight than people, and passenger rail service was dismal. The only government owned and maintained railbeds are here in the northeast; the rest are owned by the railroads. When passenger air service grew beginning in the 1950s, railroads let rail passenger service decline. They did minimal maintenance on roadbeds because freight cars don't complain about slower speed and increasing bumps and jolts.

What's that old saying ... If you don't pay for it now, you'll pay a heck of a lot more later.
 
Was reported on the news that N&S had reported around $113b spend over the last 10 years on equipment and infrastructure, but near $200b on stock buybacks and executive compensation. Plus cuts of up to 40% in actual working staff that maintain/run everything. Seems from what I see having worked for large corporate entities over the last 40 years, those at the top are see those doing the work as just an impediment to making more money. I think if they could get away with it much of the corporate world would stop providing goods and services and just send out a bill each month to everyone. Then, no expenses and just income. Wouldn't make sense in a long term view, but what big company asks where they want to be in 5, 10, 20 years??...
 
we've turned into that "instant gratification" society in the last forty years. Range-of-the-moment thinking.

We need more Dagny Taggarts!
 
Just to remind us, N&S had another 25 car derailment in west central Ohio this weekend. Fortunately no hazardous materials involved, but the train was 50 cars longer that the earlier one. If you figure an average, which may be too short, of about 50 feet per car that puts the length overall about half a mile longer. An OH senator's statement was that they want railroads to have at least 2 man crews, N&S says 1 is effective enough. I bring that up as it was reported they also said they were exploring options to have no one on the actual train but to have an engineer "drive" alongside trains so they can observe what's happening. Now I wonder, what about all those places where tracks are not next to a road, or when his shift is over, or needs gas/breaks down or on and on. Do we want huge trains with no on actually onboard??
 
Mike - I think there's a derailment in the USA every few days. Some minor, some major.

Edit: oops, not every few days. Since 1990 we've had an average of 1,704 derailments per year. Yikes.

www.independent.co.uk

How many train derailments have there been in the US in 2023?

Rail freight industry under scrutiny after ecological disaster struck East Palestine, Ohio
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

Would be interesting if states put into effect their own requirements, such as "no freight train shall enter our State unless crewed and inspected according to our State standards, and unless all freight meets requirements set by our State." or some such.

Sometimes it seems simplistic to say "why don't the feds fix this!" or "where are the feds?!", when States could enact laws themselves. It would be a pain for the railroads for sure - but might get them to take action that Congress doesn't want to get involved in (except to rant and rave and blame each other, to gain support for their re-election).

(People in our town in Connecticut say that Congress should require seat belts on each school bus. Yeah, right. But the Town could require seat belts on each school bus used in the Town.)

OK - back to my cave.
Tom M.
 
Yea, derailments aren't uncommon. What I found interesting was the N&S statement that they're looking at uncrewed trains with someone following them around in a car as being more efficient. Considering how well self driving cars work, would you want a self driving train??...
 
NutmegCT said:
Mike - I think there's a derailment in the USA every few days. Some minor, some major.

Edit: oops, not every few days. Since 1990 we've had an average of 1,704 derailments per year. Yikes.

www.independent.co.uk

How many train derailments have there been in the US in 2023?

Rail freight industry under scrutiny after ecological disaster struck East Palestine, Ohio
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

Would be interesting if states put into effect their own requirements, such as "no freight train shall enter our State unless crewed and inspected according to our State standards, and unless all freight meets requirements set by our State." or some such.

Sometimes it seems simplistic to say "why don't the feds fix this!" or "where are the feds?!", when States could enact laws themselves. It would be a pain for the railroads for sure - but might get them to take action that Congress doesn't want to get involved in (except to rant and rave and blame each other, to gain support for their re-election).

(People in our town in Connecticut say that Congress should require seat belts on each school bus. Yeah, right. But the Town could require seat belts on each school bus used in the Town.)

OK - back to my cave.
Tom M.
Click to expand...
The railroads would find that lawyers would be cheaper, and since interstate commerce is exclusively the Feds arena, they would get tossed as unconstitutional. DOT really needs to get stronger on this.
 
Back
Top