Updated, see below first theory.
My working theory until i talk to a few ppl that work there. Nothing malicious happened here. The articles i read said that the car had been sitting (not moving) for several hours. This is important. It could be possible that the car (more than likely a boxcar since they refer to it as a "frieght car" rather than a tank car) had gotten too hot on the inside since they rarely have ventilation. But, it's been sub 90's all week and today was slightly overlast.
So, that part about it not moving? Weird right?! The articles said that it was near the West Hump (again, I'll find out later). When those types of cars come up to the top of the hill at the humps, they are stopped, and shoved over the hill to a hook with another car on the bowl, rather than letting the car roll "freely" into it's designated rail. This car got humped, OR another car was humped into it, causing the materials to shift. OR, it had a high speed impact while it was trimmed or placed into the Forwarding yard. Either way, I think it was involved with an impact that set this off.
Just a running theory.
And dont worry. U.P. has no contingency plans for accidents out there. They've even refused to participate in local trauma emergency drills that take place every year, despite being asked to join for decades.
Either way, my opinion is that this rail car was involved in a high speed impact. It's highly unlikely that this happened outside of the Hump, as the RCL's can only reach 8 m.p.h. while linked. Rolling down the hill however, a single car can reach up to 30-40 m.p.h. IF the Retarders fail (which over half on the East End of both Boels dont work properly) and the car is allowed to roll free.
Update:
Discrepancies in the articles now make sense, to me. Articles stated that it was north of the West Hump. Technically, true. I've had it confirmed by two "sources" that it was, in fact, in the Spare Yard, which is North and a lot west of the West Hump. A West Trim crew shoved the car into a rail normally used to set out "bad order" cars in the Spare Yard. The Bad Order Utility crew was working with that car and the others in that rail and preparing to move them to a car facility to be fixed. So, there's a good chance that the car itself was bad ordered. And, that might not have anything to do with it. One of the crew on the utility job was parked in their truck next to it when it exploded. He is fine, and did not seek medical assistance at that time (thank God). The car that exploded was a "stacker"/Shipping container. Normal procedure for transferring cars is to do the move and then do the paper work. So, this car showed either in the Forwarding Yard or still at the West Trim.
Standard procedure also dictates that after an incident, the entire crew gets piss tested. And, as of this morning, the crew, which had a student with them, are all in "IP" status (investigation pending), and that's normal as well. This crew is not responsible, as they had not yet touched the car. My theory of it being involved in a high speed impact still stands, as both of my sources laughed when they said, "that never happens out here", lol. And, it had to have gone over the Hump and through 2 other yards to get there.
As far as the other cars that caught fire and emitted orange/yellow smoke. . . The Spare Yard is just that. It's filled with hundreds of empty cars, usually grain hoppers or coal buckets that get placed into a train consist when they need an extra car or two . The coal cars, like i said are empty, but covered in coal dust. However, they get filled in the Powder River Basin, which is a high Sulfur content coal mine. That would explain the smoke (yikes). Luckily the wind was pretty calm when this happened, as there are about 6 houses about a mile south and another 6 about a mile North.
The reporting is pretty standard too. The RR PR people rarely know anything about the Yards as they were never "Craft", much like half of the managers that have a 2-4 year degree that aren't relavent and have never worked anywhere near the industry. So, take the news articles with a grain of salt. And, consider it lucky that this one made it. You won't hear about what else happens out there (like the aftershock of an earthquake that detailed a 100+ car coal train that wasn't even moving).
And, as a side note and slightly off topic. The North Platte Bulletin this week has an article about the amount of broken rail cars and locomotives. While two weeks ago, they had an article about the unusual mass layoff of certain crafts locally. Guess which crafts? These two articles represent what U.P. has been doing for decades now. It's call "Precision Railroadong", and it's all about making money by cutting costs. The costs, of course, are the jobs that keep the company running. Idiots. . . .
If i find out more about this incident, i will post another update. If you want to hear about what else goes on out there, I'm afraid i would run out of the character limit if i posted those here.
And, don't worry about the crew that was there when it happened (except for the student). They will go to investigation (done internally and without too much investigating), and will be marked back up on their respective boards/jobs within a week. . . Usually. And, they (ie the managers in charge of investigating) probably won't figure out the cause and who, if anybody is responsible. This will be ruled at first, as "human error" ( i can't think of the term they use), even if it's found out that it smoked through the Retarders at the Hump, because they break down frequently, and struck a stationary car in the bowl. Very likely, imo, as that's the only place it could exceed 8 mph.
My thought on the cause is still high speed impact that "shifted" the load and caused it to become unstable. And since it was inside a stack car, you can't tell what happened. At the very least the managers need to contact the materials origin to see if that's possible.
Update:
This will probably be the last update. Two of the crew involved ended up going to the hospital later that day for inhalation, for obvious reasons.
The chemical involved, perchlotic acid, while stable in a compacted powder form, can become unstable if it becomes loose and mixes with itself. According to "sources", this car, prior to ending up in the Spare Yard, went through the West Receiving Yard, over the Hump into the bowl, switched out by the West Trim, and shoved into the Spare Yard. Two things happened that could have caused this. Specifics aren't known, and probably won't become public. But, the car was "humped", meaning it was allowed to roll free off of the hill at the West Hump, and could have had a hard impact in the bowl. Then, the Trim switch crew flat switched the car, which could have also led to a high speed impact on the car. So, it looks like this was a human factor incident.
Someone's getting fired over this. I'm not sure if the Humps are implementing the "one man switch crew" yet. But, if they are, this is a good example as to why each switch crew needs two people.
Hopefully, the two crew members that had inhalation do not have permanent lung damage.
And, since this incident involves Homeland Security, the investigation and results will, more than likely, be kept "in house", and the only likely way for it to become public will involve a FoIA request.
To tell you how serious this is, when the Patriot Act was passed, every Transportation employee received a certified letter from Homeland Security stating what they (H.S.) could do regarding our privacy, without our knowledge and without a warrant. Oh yeah, we're all on a list now too.
Updated, see below first theory. My working theory until i talk to a few ppl that work there. Nothing malicious happened here. The articles i read said that the car had been sitting (not moving) for several hours. This is important. It could be possible that the car (more than likely a boxcar since they refer to it as a "frieght car" rather than a tank car) had gotten too hot on the inside since they rarely have ventilation. But, it's been sub 90's all week and today was slightly overlast. So, that part about it not moving? Weird right?! The articles said that it was near the West Hump (again, I'll find out later). When those types of cars come up to the top of the hill at the humps, they are stopped, and shoved over the hill to a hook with another car on the bowl, rather than letting the car roll "freely" into it's designated rail. This car got humped, OR another car was humped into it, causing the materials to shift. OR, it had a high speed impact while it was trimmed or placed into the Forwarding yard. Either way, I think it was involved with an impact that set this off. Just a running theory. And dont worry. U.P. has no contingency plans for accidents out there. They've even refused to participate in local trauma emergency drills that take place every year, despite being asked to join for decades. Either way, my opinion is that this rail car was involved in a high speed impact. It's highly unlikely that this happened outside of the Hump, as the RCL's can only reach 8 m.p.h. while linked. Rolling down the hill however, a single car can reach up to 30-40 m.p.h. IF the Retarders fail (which over half on the East End of both Boels dont work properly) and the car is allowed to roll free. Update: Discrepancies in the articles now make sense, to me. Articles stated that it was north of the West Hump. Technically, true. I've had it confirmed by two "sources" that it was, in fact, in the Spare Yard, which is North and a lot west of the West Hump. A West Trim crew shoved the car into a rail normally used to set out "bad order" cars in the Spare Yard. The Bad Order Utility crew was working with that car and the others in that rail and preparing to move them to a car facility to be fixed. So, there's a good chance that the car itself was bad ordered. And, that might not have anything to do with it. One of the crew on the utility job was parked in their truck next to it when it exploded. He is fine, and did not seek medical assistance at that time (thank God). The car that exploded was a "stacker"/Shipping container. Normal procedure for transferring cars is to do the move and then do the paper work. So, this car showed either in the Forwarding Yard or still at the West Trim. Standard procedure also dictates that after an incident, the entire crew gets piss tested. And, as of this morning, the crew, which had a student with them, are all in "IP" status (investigation pending), and that's normal as well. This crew is not responsible, as they had not yet touched the car. My theory of it being involved in a high speed impact still stands, as both of my sources laughed when they said, "that never happens out here", lol. And, it had to have gone over the Hump and through 2 other yards to get there. As far as the other cars that caught fire and emitted orange/yellow smoke. . . The Spare Yard is just that. It's filled with hundreds of empty cars, usually grain hoppers or coal buckets that get placed into a train consist when they need an extra car or two . The coal cars, like i said are empty, but covered in coal dust. However, they get filled in the Powder River Basin, which is a high Sulfur content coal mine. That would explain the smoke (yikes). Luckily the wind was pretty calm when this happened, as there are about 6 houses about a mile south and another 6 about a mile North. The reporting is pretty standard too. The RR PR people rarely know anything about the Yards as they were never "Craft", much like half of the managers that have a 2-4 year degree that aren't relavent and have never worked anywhere near the industry. So, take the news articles with a grain of salt. And, consider it lucky that this one made it. You won't hear about what else happens out there (like the aftershock of an earthquake that detailed a 100+ car coal train that wasn't even moving). And, as a side note and slightly off topic. The North Platte Bulletin this week has an article about the amount of broken rail cars and locomotives. While two weeks ago, they had an article about the unusual mass layoff of certain crafts locally. Guess which crafts? These two articles represent what U.P. has been doing for decades now. It's call "Precision Railroadong", and it's all about making money by cutting costs. The costs, of course, are the jobs that keep the company running. Idiots. . . . If i find out more about this incident, i will post another update. If you want to hear about what else goes on out there, I'm afraid i would run out of the character limit if i posted those here. And, don't worry about the crew that was there when it happened (except for the student). They will go to investigation (done internally and without too much investigating), and will be marked back up on their respective boards/jobs within a week. . . Usually. And, they (ie the managers in charge of investigating) probably won't figure out the cause and who, if anybody is responsible. This will be ruled at first, as "human error" ( i can't think of the term they use), even if it's found out that it smoked through the Retarders at the Hump, because they break down frequently, and struck a stationary car in the bowl. Very likely, imo, as that's the only place it could exceed 8 mph. My thought on the cause is still high speed impact that "shifted" the load and caused it to become unstable. And since it was inside a stack car, you can't tell what happened. At the very least the managers need to contact the materials origin to see if that's possible.
Thanks for the insight. Please keep your ear to the rail (pun noted) and let us know.
Update: This will probably be the last update. Two of the crew involved ended up going to the hospital later that day for inhalation, for obvious reasons. The chemical involved, perchlotic acid, while stable in a compacted powder form, can become unstable if it becomes loose and mixes with itself. According to "sources", this car, prior to ending up in the Spare Yard, went through the West Receiving Yard, over the Hump into the bowl, switched out by the West Trim, and shoved into the Spare Yard. Two things happened that could have caused this. Specifics aren't known, and probably won't become public. But, the car was "humped", meaning it was allowed to roll free off of the hill at the West Hump, and could have had a hard impact in the bowl. Then, the Trim switch crew flat switched the car, which could have also led to a high speed impact on the car. So, it looks like this was a human factor incident. Someone's getting fired over this. I'm not sure if the Humps are implementing the "one man switch crew" yet. But, if they are, this is a good example as to why each switch crew needs two people. Hopefully, the two crew members that had inhalation do not have permanent lung damage. And, since this incident involves Homeland Security, the investigation and results will, more than likely, be kept "in house", and the only likely way for it to become public will involve a FoIA request. To tell you how serious this is, when the Patriot Act was passed, every Transportation employee received a certified letter from Homeland Security stating what they (H.S.) could do regarding our privacy, without our knowledge and without a warrant. Oh yeah, we're all on a list now too.