Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Watch a freight train loaded with new cars lose a fight with a low bridge

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/09/16/freight-train-hits-low-bridge-memphis-video/

The incident caused $2 million in damages

Bridge looks ok though.

Walmart greeter...... " I used to be an engineer"

oddly satisfying to watch.

I don’t know how railroad planning works for each load but it seems that there should have been a point in the process of loading that train that kept it off that line and away from that bridge. Who would be responsible for that?

As a bridge engineer I'm always amazed at how tough these steel bridges are after an impact. I've seen tops of modular homes obliterated with narely a scratch on the bridge girder. Even had a drill rig shear the head off the rig one time that barely bent the bottom flange of the girder. They have interior lateral diaphragms between the girders that help against lateral forces like this, but it is still amazing to see how strong they are.

They are not indestructible though as we have had to hire contractors to come in a heat/straighten girders from impact in the past. You don't want to be on the receiving end of that bill!

one engineer to another.... hey, do you hear something weird sounding?

That wax that the guy uses on the cars in the junkyard on tv should buff that right out.

The person responsible is nowhere to be found.

Was Biden the engineer?

That is unbelievable. Somebody screwed up.

By the way I had a bad time on a freight train in Memphis. We were riding through on a freight train on the way to Denver. Got spotted by the Memphis yard cops and got taken to the Memphis city jail. The cops told us if they caught us again, they would stop the train on the high bridge over the Mississippi, and they would throw us into the river. That was kind of scary but they were just kidding.
I think.

That’s awesome! Can they do it again!!

Well, I never destroyed a whole freight train load but I can tell you a .22 long rifle put a pretty good dent in the drivers side door of a brand new 1950 Chevy that was on a passing freight train. One of my earliest memories as a three year old.

Those steel bridges might be strong, but I don't think I'd be dumb enough to be standing on it filming the cluster f--k. If the bridge decided to go down, that probably wouldn't be the best place to be.

As a railroad engineer, I'm betting this is the conductors fault. In the video the roof of the autorack is already damaged by previous contact with the bridge, this tells me they are moving back and forth. Also the speed at which the train is moving tells me this is probably "other than main" track (OTM) or it's a long lead to a yard track. If this was a "main" track the train with extreme dimension cars such as auto racks would have to have a route clearance for the entire route on the trains paperwork, if operating on OTM or yard track the train crew is responsible for checking the yrack charts or time table for close clearance, and protecting the train and personnel from them.

Now as to why I'm betting it's the conductors fault. If the train was pulling ahead the engineer probably would have noticed a low clearance and would have stopped the train without damage or less damage to the cars. My guess is the contact with the bridge happened at the rear of the train during a "shove" (backup) move. When making a shoving move the person on the ground conductor or brakeman has to provide protection for the rear of the train, as tbe engineer can't be responsible for what he/she can't physically observe. The conductor is also ultimately responsible for all the cars in the train as he is technically the job foreman of the train crew. A vehicle train usually doesn't require brakeman as well for the crew makeup.

My best guess is that the conductor was nowhere near the rear if the train a a it was shoved into the bridge. Where the engineer might be considered at fault is if he can physically see the conductor in the trains mirror, knowing the rear if the train isn't being protected. If the conductor wasn't in the engineers range of vision then all he can do is trust the conductors instructions.

Interesting, thanks for that post.

I don't really understand your input but in my simple mind, if the load was too tall going forward, it would be too tall going backwards.

At the point of the collision, why didn't they un-couple the cars and pull them away from the bridge?

Messy.

Gonna be some slightly used cars for sale cheap!

You see this all the time with 18 wheelers. You need 13-5 to clear a bridge. Dumb ass took the wrong road, or maybe his GPS sent him down the wrong road, and he ignored three signs, in one mile, that said LOW BRIDGE CLEARANCE 12-4. You see that all the time, dumb ass driver.

But it is hard to figure out how that could happen with a train.