gmax137 said:
@Astronuc if you havent seen this one you may find it interesting.
Yes, I've seen some videos of the derailment. Pretty stunning. The locomotives stayed on the trestle.
I hadn't seen that video, but I saw earlier videos when it first happened. I was curious about the cause - possibly a broken rail, a broken wheel or axle, or some shift in the gauge. The video indicates a broken rail near the east switch that became lodged under the slug. It's interesting that it mentions 'the broken rail was dragged by the slug, which would mean two break points if the rail was actually displaced along the trestle. The rail had to have broken under the unit just ahead (PW 3571) of the slug, then caught by the slug, which then managed to derail on the trestle. From the video, it looks like workers were replacing stock rather then a switch point rail.
It looks like they took GP38 3571 off the opposite end (east/south end) of the trestle. There is a comment about the right rail is overturned, ostensibly looking south or the direction of travel. The train was headed from Toledo east/south to Albany, Oregon. The derailed locomotives and slug were the last three units of 6 units (see the video below). The first three units made it across. The 4th unit had front truck on the rail, wit the trailing truck derailed; rail could have broken under the trailing truck which derailed, or the derailment happened with the slug, which then caused 2571 to derail.
Portland & Western Railroad (PNWR,
https://www.gwrr.com/pnwr/) is one of the Genesee and Wyoming, Inc shortlines.
The video at 4:28 shows the right stock rail and right switch point are missing, either of which might have been removed by crew after the freight cars were moved back into the yard. The switch points are only about 10-20 feet or 3-6 m from the trestle.
