MASSIVE INFERNO, THREAT OF “CATASTROPHIC” EXPLOSION AFTER ~50-CAR TRAIN DERAILMENT

They're all Jabbed.

Their immune systems are compromised - disabled, to allow this genetic modification.

Hoisted by their own petards.

Zero (expletive)s given.

Jason Cox, national representative of the Transportation Communications Union, testified at the National Transportation Safety Board’s hearing Friday on the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that a suspect freight car had not been inspected as it traveled through the state on Feb. 3.

A wheel bearing on that freight car is believed to have caused the derailment. Cox said it was his understanding that no inspection had been performed on the car as it went into Decatur, Illinois, and then traveled through the Ohio cities of Toledo, Cleveland and Bellevue.

“There are qualified mechanical inspectors at all these points, and they were not allowed to inspect this car at any of those locations,” Cox said.

Does the plot...thicken?

A possible terrorist, doing hinky things on railroad tracks, up near Cleveland.



Already they're weaving the story - a Lone Wolf...one of thousands, it seems. A Lone Wolf who learned how to derail trains from Al Qaeda. (And not very well, I might add.)

From the photos, I can't tell if he's one of Obama's stepsons or what. Living at home at age 43, off his mama, with Mama sayin' "He's a good boy" suggests his racial makeup, though.

searcher said:

“There are qualified mechanical inspectors at all these points, and they were not allowed to inspect this car at any of those locations,” Cox said.

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Who, what, where, when...?

Casey Jones said:

a train hit an obstruction on the track and temporarily derailed before the wheels dropped back into place.

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How often did you ever see that happen? Derails and then hops back on the track? I'm no railroader, but that sounds like a one in a million event.

Joe King said:

How often did you ever see that happen? Derails and then hops back on the track? I'm no railroader, but that sounds like a one in a million event.

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I've never actually witnessed it.

But the Penn Central veterans (Conrail was a reorganization of the bankrupt Penn Central) would talk of having chunks break off the ends of jointed rail sections...before continuous-welded track was used almost everywhere. You'd come across a foot-long break in one of the rails, and you'd go over it with a hell of a bump...and the thing to do, if you were still on the rails, was keep a steady tension on the train. The cars would walk over it. If you had to suddenly cut power or apply the brakes, that would be where the cars would jacknife.

I did see a WWII era training movie, digitized, that discussed how to wreck enemy trains. It wasn't enough to just pull one section of rail out - the demonstration project showed that often, if the track was straight, the cars would hop right back up onto the rail.

And I have come across crude derail attempts. The one that really pissed me off, was when we were going into Columbus...an interlocking (set of switches and signals) on a curve outside Buckeye Yard. The tracks were behind a gathering of homes - new construction but obviously not for wealthy buyers. We come up on the curve, and a bunch of rug rats scurry...we have a red. I stop short - which often happens - and I release the brakes, and try to walk the train forward 200 feet up against the red, so as to give more room behind me. We go over a hand-throw switch, outside the interlocking, with a tremendous bump. Six bumps - we had a six-axle locomotive. I stop, set the brakes, looking for track damage...and right between the first and second locomotives, is the switch "frog" - a casting that enables the flanged wheels to go either direction over the switch. Jammed in front of it was a loose spike, those kids either found or pulled out. If I'd hit it at track speed, 25 mph on that curve, I would have come off and maybe tipped over, given the layout of the curve and right-of-way.

I guess those kids thought it would be fun to have a train full of hazardous material derail in their back yards. Well...that was 24 years ago; those kids, if they lived, have grown...I wonder if they think things are fun up the road in East Palestine.

Looking at that article, and seeing the crude way those casting pieces were set on the railhead...not likely it would derail a freight. A lighter Amtrak passenger coach might come off; but with Amtrak there, the locomotives would be pulling, clearing the rail. Not a push-pull operation, as with some commuter or shorter Amtrak runs.

Casey Jones said:

I've never actually witnessed it.

But the Penn Central veterans (Conrail was a reorganization of the bankrupt Penn Central) would talk of having chunks break off the ends of jointed rail sections...before continuous-welded track was used almost everywhere. You'd come across a foot-long break in one of the rails, and you'd go over it with a hell of a bump...and the thing to do, if you were still on the rails, was keep a steady tension on the train. The cars would walk over it. If you had to suddenly cut power or apply the brakes, that would be where the cars would jacknife.

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When I was about 12 or so there was a wooded area near a double track mainline that a friend and I would sometimes ride our bikes to. Freight trains would fly by about every 15 minutes or so, and we noticed that every train going East was making a really loud noise. So between trains we walked our along the tracks and saw there was a spot where the rail head had a chunk out of it. The missing piece was about 8 inches long and about an inch or so deep.
We saw that and thought the next train was gonna crash. We got way the f' back, but it just went right over it like all the rest had.

Casey Jones said:

I did see a WWII era training movie, digitized, that discussed how to wreck enemy trains. It wasn't enough to just pull one section of rail out - the demonstration project showed that often, if the track was straight, the cars would hop right back up onto the rail.

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I've seen that. What that demonstrates is just how well that trains want to stay on the tracks. It seems that it really does take quite a lot to knock one of the rails.
The geometry of the whole system is rock solid. As long as gauge is maintained and they go the right speed, it'll go right on down the track.

There's vids on youtube of trains going down horrible looking track, seemingly without a problem other than the crew getting tossed around a bit.

Casey Jones said:

And I have come across crude derail attempts. The one that really pissed me off, was when we were going into Columbus...an interlocking (set of switches and signals) on a curve outside Buckeye Yard. The tracks were behind a gathering of homes - new construction but obviously not for wealthy buyers. We come up on the curve, and a bunch of rug rats scurry...we have a red. I stop short - which often happens - and I release the brakes, and try to walk the train forward 200 feet up against the red, so as to give more room behind me. We go over a hand-throw switch, outside the interlocking, with a tremendous bump. Six bumps - we had a six-axle locomotive. I stop, set the brakes, looking for track damage...and right between the first and second locomotives, is the switch "frog" - a casting that enables the flanged wheels to go either direction over the switch. Jammed in front of it was a loose spike, those kids either found or pulled out. If I'd hit it at track speed, 25 mph on that curve, I would have come off and maybe tipped over, given the layout of the curve and right-of-way.

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I'm glad ya didn't crash. Meddling kids can get into all kinds of trouble.

Joe King said:

... Meddling kids can get into all kinds of trouble.

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Casey Jones said:

I did see a WWII era training movie, digitized, that discussed how to wreck enemy trains. It wasn't enough to just pull one section of rail out - the demonstration project showed that often, if the track was straight, the cars would hop right back up onto the rail.

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Back when the survivalist movement (not preppers) was going strong there were a lot of books out with this sort of stuff in them. Loompanics and Paladin Press used to carry them. Don't know if the info was good (who knows) but there was a book put out by the Swiss for their citizens incase they were invaded.

@Casey Jones................what's your opinion of this. About 4 pages long, starts here:

https://archive.org/details/total-r...ide-to-guerilla-warfare-1965/page/46/mode/2up

Most of that would work; but they're overlooking something: The emphasis is on destroying the RAIL. That will work, in curves or if the saboteurs take out a goodly amount of it, and/or both sides. But if you want to stop traffic dead...leave the rail alone. Undercut the earth below it.

Most railroad lines are set on raised beds. A backhoe, digging out the side of the embankment, leaves the rail intact - which is important, as the fail-safe system of signals relies on low-voltage current passing through the metal of the rails. If the circuit is broken, the signals all drop on that block.

The area a rail is broken off can be shunted with jumper wires, but that's not surefire and it takes work. This is LOW voltage - just a jumper wire, may not be enough, or may indicate a fault through increased voltage resistance. Dig out the roadbed, leaving the track just hanging in air for fifteen feet, and the train will roll right up, unaware, go into the ditch, break the rails, and the train behind will pile up on top of the power.

I don't know how long it would take to dig out the embankment - maybe, with a backhoe, half an hour? Half an hour for trains or inspectors to come by, or property owners or law enforcement.

Casey Jones said:

I don't know how long it would take to dig out the embankment - maybe, with a backhoe, half an hour? H

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I bet it'd take a lot longer than 30 minutes.
I also think it'd be a real trick to get the scoop on a backhoe up under the rails and ties to dig it all out. You'd need to do at least the center part by hand, and just doing that for 15 feet would be a real chore unless you had a crew to help. Those ballast rocks ain't light.
....and God help ya if you are out there digging with your backhoe and train comes. Lol

Better to do it the Hogan's Hero's way with improvised explosives inside a tunnel. Lol

Joe King said:

I bet it'd take a lot longer than 30 minutes.
I also think it'd be a real trick to get the scoop on a backhoe up under the rails and ties to dig it all out. You'd need to do at least the center part by hand, and just doing that for 15 feet would be a real chore unless you had a crew to help. Those ballast rocks ain't light.
....and God help ya if you are out there digging with your backhoe and train comes. Lol

Better to do it the Hogan's Hero's way with improvised explosives inside a tunnel. Lol

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Now, I'll preface this by saying, we're just doing free-associating here...

That taken care of....

You wouldn't need to dig completely under the tracks. One-half the roadbed would do. That side of the track would collapse, the rail break , and the lead locomotive tip over. It would be as good as having the loco go into a small ditch-like dig, and more fearful, really. No crews want to tip over, get bounced about in a steel cab with hundreds of hard edges.

You mention being interrupted. That's always a problem. There's ways - you could have lookouts stake out the tracks, dozens of miles up and down; or if there's a hot-box detector in the area, you could have a radio listen for the computerized broadcast as it passes over it.

Problem with plugging a tunnel is...there ain't that many left. Tunnels require a LOT of work, and some annoyance for train crews. Actually, danger - our 3500-foot Mullen Tunnel could fill with diesel exhaust quickly, if there was any sort of emergency inside. The locomotives used for that run had breathing equipment stored in cabs, in event of an air-line separation, which would bring the train to a stop and render it immobile.

So...crews don't like tunnels, for that reason and because of vandals and saboteurs. @$$holes put stolen cars or shopping carts in there, to watch the fun. It's not fun for the crew, goes without saying. The tendency is to either bypass tunnels - now that railroad companies are consolidated, the lines with the least number of tunnels tend to be used - or, occasionally, digging out the tunnels to make them open cuts.

And blowing the roof of a tunnel, first, is dangerous and a lot of work, and second, renders the railroad unusable until MASSIVE repairs are done. Which may be a problem, if you're thinking about Afterward.

Union Pacific Fired Him Rather Than Heed His Warnings of Dangerous Rail Conditions​

AS HE WALKED ALONG THE SPONGY, damp Louisiana marshland, scrutinizing tracks owned by one of the nation’s largest freight railroad companies, Robert Faaborg was not happy. The strips of wood that held the rails in place, called ties, were rotten. The screws that held them together were rusted. It was the sort of decay that could cause 18,000-ton trains to derail.

That evening in January 2014, the government inspector fired off an email to the two Union Pacific managers who had accompanied him on the ground. He wanted them to picture the death and destruction that could unfold if tanker cars filled with highly flammable Bakken crude oil teetered off the rickety tracks and careened toward nearby homes.

“I was a little surprised that a KEY route with such high volumes of hazardous materials had tie conditions like this,” Faaborg wrote. He asked them to think about the neighboring families they saw that day. “I was struck by a little girl’s voice calling out, ‘Daddy,’” the inspector wrote. “The family of that little girl is counting on us to keep her and them safe.”

More:

searcher said:

Union Pacific Fired Him Rather Than Heed His Warnings of Dangerous Rail Conditions​

AS HE WALKED ALONG THE SPONGY, damp Louisiana marshland, scrutinizing tracks owned by one of the nation’s largest freight railroad companies, Robert Faaborg was not happy. The strips of wood that held the rails in place, called ties, were rotten. The screws that held them together were rusted. It was the sort of decay that could cause 18,000-ton trains to derail.

That evening in January 2014, the government inspector fired off an email to the two Union Pacific managers who had accompanied him on the ground. He wanted them to picture the death and destruction that could unfold if tanker cars filled with highly flammable Bakken crude oil teetered off the rickety tracks and careened toward nearby homes.

“I was a little surprised that a KEY route with such high volumes of hazardous materials had tie conditions like this,” Faaborg wrote. He asked them to think about the neighboring families they saw that day. “I was struck by a little girl’s voice calling out, ‘Daddy,’” the inspector wrote. “The family of that little girl is counting on us to keep her and them safe.”

More:

Union Pacific Fired Him Rather Than Heed His Warnings of Dangerous Rail Conditions

Time and again, Johnny Taylor’s duty to keep the rails safe from disaster conflicted with his employer’s desire to keep its trains running as fast and as frequently as possible, putting his career and family in peril.

www.propublica.org

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Far be it from me to defend the Useless Pathetic. It was a crony outfit right from inception; and while they were able to pretend to be a responsible, efficient business in the mid-20th Century, they're going back to their roots.

With a lot of company. Norfolk Southern is BlackRock; and BNSF is BUFFET.

That said...false-populist agitators are constantly trying to outrage the public on the "deficiencies" and "dangers" of railroads, as long as I've been alive and longer. Everyone wants to be the next Upton Sinclair or Ralph Nader.

Yeah, if a train comes off the rail, a lot of death and destruction can happen. And yes, there's often homes close to tracks. FWIW, that's recklessness on the part of builders. Zoning laws could prohibit it, but what would be done with all that empty land? You're not going to put industrial sites in suburban villages.

Often times, as an area was built up, those homes were sold for less than in other parts. I remember in Ohio, where I grew up...Lakewood and Bay Village had homes built up almost up against the railroad property. Those weren't fancy homes; you had to go a couple blocks away to find more-typical homes; but it gave buyers with tighter budgets the chance to live and raise a family in safe cities with good schools.

And only once do I remember a derailment on those tracks, even though at the time, 1970-ish, trains ran 60 mph through there. After a pedestrian was killed, the cities, backed by the state, imposed a 25-mph speed through there...and, surprise, surprise!...traffic trickled to nearly nothing, as the newly-created Norfolk Southern with half of Conrail added, just ran trains where they could go faster. About a dozen industries that way had to switch to trucks. Moar interstate and surface truck traffic.

Okay. One punky rail tie, does not mean the roadbed is unsafe. Ties have scheduled replacement times, or at least regular inspection. Most times, some rotted ties are replaced, as needed, in a major, but short-duration, procedure...roadbed is closed for a couple of days while the old ties are pulled out, new ones inserted by machine, under the rail, and then spiked in and snugged up.

Concrete ties? That was the miracle that was going to lead to a low-maintenance roadbed. Didn't work. Have you ever noticed on railroad tracks, how the rail dips with each axle passing over a spot? Like the rail was fluid, like it wasn't properly tamped in. The ties actually compress with the weight.

And it's not a problem - in fact it's essential. Rail, laid in conventional manner on wooden ties, on straight track, can last a century. Really!...rail is cast with date codes, for later repair people to identify the age, the batch, the source. It's commonplace to find 1920s rail still in place, often even welded into modern continuous-welded track.

But with concrete ties, that have no give...the metal in rail crystallizes and fatigues. Rail on concrete sleepers lasts about five years. And replacing a welded ribbon of rail, is MUCH more involved than replacing ties or even refurbishing the roadbed.

Bottom line is, I don't know who to believe. Union Pacific is part of an industry with a credibility problem. Pro Publica is part of an industry with NO credibility, and has been part of the Agitator-Activist wing of that destructive business.

I wouldn't panic. FAR more dangerous than roadbeds, are the new trends of radio-controlled rear "distributed power" combined with incredibly-long trains...three miles and more. We saw how that works in an emergency situation in East Palestine, and we keep on seeing it.

Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the toxic train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio, causing nearly half of the town's population to evacuate.

The agreement, which is pending court approval, would resolve all class action claims from within a 20-mile radius from the derailment - and for residents who agree to the settlement, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment, the Daily Mail reports.
...

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pmbug said:

Norfolk Southern To Pay $600 Million To East Palestine Over Toxic Train Derailment | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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I wonder how much each household will receive?

33% for the lawyers is a given...

Goldhedge said:

I wonder how much each household will receive?

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By the time it's all done and said, prolly about $57.34

searcher said:

Judge approves $600 million settlement for residents near fiery Ohio derailment

A federal judge has approved a $600 million class-action settlement involving last year's disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

apnews.com

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If it buys out their homes and medical maladies that could show up in years to come it's a good deal.

searcher said:

Judge approves $600 million settlement for residents near fiery Ohio derailment

A federal judge has approved a $600 million class-action settlement involving last year's disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

apnews.com

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So. The ambulance-chaser law firm gets $200 million, and the 50,000 or so residents affected, split the rest.

I'm getting a settlement of $8000 per person, if there's that many claimants.

Chicken feed. Renting a house, for a family, now, will cost $3000 - $4000 A MONTH.

If it's true as presented, it's an obscenity.

If there's a cap on what the ambulance-chasers can take, that's better, but not much better.