# Horseshoe Curve Derailment (July 5th, 2019)



## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

I saw this pop up on my Facebook News Feed this afternoon... appears to have happened July 5, 2019. For those of you without Facebook, here's the YouTube video that appears to be taken from the Horseshoe Curve visitors center camera that day/time. The earlier part of the video shows the 3 locomotive that pulled away from the derailed cars. Not sure if NS has determined the cause yet, but I gotta believe there's a tremendous amount of force exerted on the trucks and couplers of those empties between the third locomotive and the heavier cars behind the empties -- especially since there was reportedly no helper engines "pushing" in the rear. Can't fight the laws of physics -- assuming there was no mechanical compromise on any of the empty cars immediately behind the last locomotive.

Moderators, please feel free to move this to an appropriate sub-forum. Wasn't sure if this belongs in Union Station or not.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Here's an view of the 7/5/2019 Horseshoe Curve derailment using drones. It appears traffic was still able to travel on the curve using the inside track while derailed cars were still laying on their side amidst full Summertime foliage.

Fascinating vantage point.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2019)

Thanks for the videos, David. Did not make the national news, so thanks to you, we all know about it now.


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## Wood (Jun 9, 2015)

Rocky Mountaineer said:


> I gotta believe there's a tremendous amount of force exerted on the trucks and couplers of those empties between the third locomotive and the heavier cars behind the empties
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdxlqAT2uE


David, Thank you for the video. 

Your assessment of what happened is interesting. Hard to believe those empties were being pulled on the front end of the consist with loaded cars trailing. NS is a very competent RR. I will look forward to reading about the details.


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## kstrains (Sep 19, 2015)

I tuned in last night on Virtual RailFan on their live webcam which I do occasionally. Took me a few minutes to realize there was a derailment on the curve because it was getting dark. I started to read the comments and realized what happened. I Watched on and off most of the day the clean up. Couple of cars were shoved off to the side of the tracks to get them out of the way. I assume they were too damaged to be put back on the tracks. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

When a NS train fell off the tracks near my house back in February, they didn't even attempt to salvage any of the ten plus cars that fell off.

They cut them up right there with a torch and piled up the sheetmetal, loaded it into a truck and hauled it away. Same with the truck bolsters and wheels.

It took them months to clean up this mess that could have been avoided with a rail and tie replacement that could have been done in a day. That section of rail was so bad the speed was restricted to 10 MPH until past the grade crossing.


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## Stoshu (Jun 20, 2015)

When a NS train fell off the tracks near my house back in February, they didn't even attempt to salvage any of the ten plus cars that fell off.
_
I guess this begs the question of " How old is the average rail car ? " Is there a limited time that cars can be on the rails ? Maybe the downtime of the track was worth more than the cars themselves. Interesting...._


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

The cars might not have been worth much, but the cleanup most likely was expensive.


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## J.Albert1949 (Feb 3, 2018)

Just my guess, but that Horseshoe Curve derailment was a westbound going uphill, with some [relatively] light empty lumber flats with a lot of weight behind them.

The "inward forces" (due to the curve and the weight behind them) lifted them right up and off the rails.

I wonder how many cars were in that train, and where those empty flats were located?


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

J.Albert1949 said:


> ...
> 
> I wonder how many cars were in that train, and where those empty flats were located?


Correct... it was a westbound train traveling uphill, and the empty cars were located immediately behind the three lead locomotives. From what I understand, there were no helper locomotives pushing up the rear. Not sure how long the entire train was.

David


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