The mind reels...

That, is a predicament.

Here's hoping the 'Big Hook' is on the right end of the railroad to access the site.

More News...

...concerning the nasty derail the KC&G had last night on the mountain...

According to Engineer J. "Coondog" Bivens, things were going fine and dandy coming down the grade, but as they got to the big horseshoe curve just above Ozarka...

"They's a hard jerk of slack pulled out an' we blew up (i.e. went into "Emergency"). I slapped that engine brake valve down an' kept it bailed as we ground to a stop", said Engineer Bivens.

Bivens continued...

"We's no sooner stopped then ol' Highpockets was out the door in flash, his lantern in hand, and started poundin' the chat back up the mountain to see how bad it wuz. We all know'd we's on the ground, and on the ground bad. As he did I's tryin' to raise the 'Spatcher on the horn... but we's in one of them dead spots where these fool radios ain't worth the junk they're made of!"

Anyway, word was that the radio in the caboose was able to get through to the dispatcher and the crew duly advised of the situation. The dispatcher stopped all trains en route on the Ozark Sub, putting them into holes here and there in preparation for the clean up moves.

The rear end crew came forward to the head end, and the crippled train limped on into Ozarka. There the Ozarka crew tacked on the local caboose, and the shortened train made it's way south to hole up, or make it Clarksville, whichever came first.

The hook was dispatched out of Clarksville (Clarksville is south of Ozarka), and once at Ozarka, a run-around move was made, and the slow shove up the mountain begain. Eventually, the hook train reached the site.

From this point it was "work until the trains can run again", and so the clean up began.

More news later.

Andre

Edit: Replaced fat fingered "round-around" with what my mind told them to type: "run-around" originally. Fool fingers.

Following along

and hoping for the best! Heaven forbid if anyone went clear on down to the Washington Canyon floor.

Andre

Andre I saw in our local Ozark extreme underground paper that the gremlins have been causing all kinds of ruckus since spring started so early this year. Has something to do with hibernation time being cut short by intermittent heat waves. Just a heads up as a possible cause.

Jack

Hey Tater

Update...

Yes, Rick, dumping them into Possum Creek would have been a bad deal. AND, had that been a loaded train, they would have piled up some more cars as they stacked to a stop.

Jack: The Big Heads were all over the place trying to determine the cause of the derail. Almost a case of "too many chiefs and not enough Indians".

After assessing the situation, the Foreman had the work train ease up toward the first spilled car and the boom operator swung around in position to start making the first lift.

The Ozark Sub boys may be referred to by the uppity-do flat-lander KC&G men as "Hillbillies"... but make no mistake, those hillbillies are good at what they do. Most of them have been railroadin' the Ozarks since fresh out of school. In fact, many of the old head Engineer's ran steam on the KC&G!

Skilled at what they do, the first lift went well, and soon the first car was on the rail. If you look close you can see the cable on the car's drawbar that was used to make the final set onto the rail:

With that, once the car was repaired enough to move, the Car Foreman gave the okay, and the work train eased it back to Ozarka. Once spotted on the Old Wye track and blue flagged, it was shove back up the mountain and start on car #2. As this was transpiring, the Dispatcher had authorized an extra, and a crew and engine was headed south out of Branson (Mo) so as to be there to deal with the on-track cars that would complicate the lift of car #2.

Going to be a long night.

Andre

You sure it wasn't a load shift?

Sounds like a load of BS sloshed in the car, causing it to pick the switch....

Blind Dog

SP (UP) had a similar one years ago

on the Santa Cruz branch near Capitola. Walking the tracks with the railroad inspector we could see where the flanges of the second or third car in the train rode over the outside rail going into a downhill curve. Suspicion was that the engineer hit the brakes a bit too late/too much  and the slack ran in knocking the empty hopper off the rails and pulling about a half dozen following cars with it. ....DaveB

Ohhh

“Oh the humanity!”

Joe

Update

All:

Intended to add the final chapter to this edge-of-your-seat unfolding drama last night, but got involved in some very important retiree stuff (YouTube'n)... so it didn't happen. Anyway, some replies, and an update...

Blind Dog:

You may be on to something there. Very well could have been the sailboat fuel being hauled at the time (far be it for me to ship BS) shifted, and the resulting carnage was the final product.

DaveB:

"Coondog" Bivens (he likes to coon hunt, what can I say?) is one of the older heads on the KC&G... he was handling his air perfectly to drop down The Mountain in a safe and timely manner. It's my understanding the Big Heads have determined the cause of the incident. Full incident report to follow.

Joe:

Indeed!

Update:

So Extra 412 South extra arrived, and after receiving permission to enter the work zone, eased on down to the site of the mayhem. Once all the hands were clear, the Foreman gave the okay for hoghead "Smokey" Bayer to couple up. That he did, easing to a soft joint on the disabled train.

Ready to go, "Smokey" stretched 'em back... then released the air... and started backing north toward Jack Fork. At Jack Fork, the crew would run around the truncated train, and be ready to head south as soon as the main was opened. Seeing as this was a fresh crew that was run light out of Branson (which is to the north), they had plenty of hours in their hip pocket... so it was feet up on the heaters and grab some winks while they waited. The chant of the idling 567 and the gentle rocking of the seats put 'em out like a light in short order.

Meanwhile, back down at the wreck site, the hook's crew made timely work of getting the final car back on the rails. With the crippled car in tow, the wreck train started to creep back down toward Ozarka to again run around and, after getting the blue flag knocked down, shoved the last of the bruised cars into the temporary RIP track, the Old Wye track, for needed repairs.

Extra 412 South followed along behind per the rules and once the wreck train was in the clear at Ozarka... grabbed some notches and headed south for Clarksville. Their night would soon be over.

The "Official" KC&G Incident Report:

The "official" results as to the cause of the incident: The leading truck of the trailing derailed car was stiff. Later repairs indicated the bowl on the offending truck was essentially bone dry.

Recap:

So the carnage on The Mountain was cleaned up, the track crews finished shoring up the track, and it was back to mountain railroading, KC&G style.

From the HO Car Dept:

It was a sure 'nuf stiff truck. You see, I had purchased a lot shipment (5 cars) of Athearn 34' NKP hopper cars. When received, I noticed they already had Kadee's and metal wheels. So, I checked the coupler heights and put 'em into much needed service to shuttle coal to/from the Arkansas coal fields. This was their first trip down The Mountain in a train of empties. Well, the lead truck in question was apparently crabbing along and when it got to the switch, it derailed and followed the spur. This in turn pulled the car ahead with it until the train separated... and the rest is history: One car on it's side, and another wompus-kitty'd to the main.

Lesson: NEVER assume all is well with new purchases. Check all the operational essentials every time! This one bit me on the hiney.

From the HO Operations Dept:

Once the derail happened, I figured this would be a perfect time (solo running) to see how such an event would impact an operating session.

Though there would have been some down time for the crews, both very likely WOULD have been kept busy continuing to switch at Ozarka or Mountain Springs (as the case may be), or finding a place to tie up (if running a mainline train), or being used as an extra crew (such as Extra 412 South in the above incident) for clean-up, etc.

Also, this gave me the opportunity to revert further back into my childhood and "play trains", using the hook and cables (loops of thead) to actually lift the cars back into place. In all, it was truly a fun diversion from "normal" operation... and it's a feature I'm going to implement into the KC&G's operational scheme of things!

As this unfolded, I took pics and texted them to one of my long-time railroading/model railroading friends as the events happened, complete with embellished text (BS?) describing the doin's. He thoroughly enjoyed it and expressed that he would have really gotten a hoot out of being there to join in on the fun. (He forwarded my texts/pics to a mutual model railroading friend, and he to, said that sounded like I was having way too much fun and wanted in on it if the opportunity arose when operating with me.) SO, the consensus is in: As my crews learn of my antics, they want to be a part of it. Sounds like fun!

All fer now.

Andre

Cause

Along that same line of reasoning, just as likely a cause would be that the spikes on the switch were rusty.

Derail

That, and the spikes sometimes don't hold too good in the bermuda grass.

As you well know, on the prototype, a "stiff truck" on a foreign road car is often blamed for derailments that didn't have an obvious "home road" cause. Best part about that, is that all the employees involved on said RR get a "free pass".

My worst derailment was traced to a sun kink. Fortunately, my train handling data was fine (to brag a bit, in the words of the Super upon viewing the train handling read-out: "The train handling was excellent. No issues there." Those are sweet words to an Engineer during such an investigation!)

The investigation that followed revealed that one rail shot out 5'-8' from underneath the very last truck of the very last car. The derailed truck promptly hopped into the web, and started rolling rail. Rolled along fine until the next switch where it sumariily took out the switch and dumped three loaded covered hoppers on their side with adjoining cars derailed!  Twas a mess!

When it comes to railroading: Crap happens. (At times often!)

Andre

Wondering

Cause

"Stiff truck" means that whoever is investigating either doesn't want to figure out the cause or isn't qualified to figure out the cause (same with "sharp flange").  If somebody told the General Manager the cause was "stiff truck", he would tell the Superintendent, Master Mechanic, Trainmaster and Roadmaster to go back out to the derailment and not come back until they had figured out the real cause.

There is no requirement to lubricate the center plate, so the fact that one isn't lubricated is not an issue/cause.  

Now on a model car, one can tighten the king pin screw too tight so the truck won't rotate.  A real car doesn't have a king pin screw, the only thing that hold the car on the truck is gravity.

YMMV

"Stiff truck"...

Actually, I have been in on a derail or two that it was traced to a stiff truck with sharp flanges, which is typically the result of a stiff truck.

Didn't say it was.

Instead, was saying the "observation" of the Car Dept at the KC&G that the car in question had a dry bowl.

And, as in my prototype examples mentioned above, in this HO case, the derail was also traced to a stiff truck!

Andre

Interesting

This is an interesting concept in general. Normally, people use the "0-5-0" to lift the cars and re-rail them.

However, I knew a guy who had a big layout in Maryland, and if something went on the ground in an op session, you had to call out the big hook from the roundhouse (with a different operator for that train) and get the hook within the length of the operator's hand before you could re-rail anything. If it was an engine, you had to get the other big hook (yeah, he had two), each with their own operator, with the same rules. Someone working another train couldn't stop and take the big hooks up, either. In real life, the owner said, you had to get new crews (his sessions always had extra guys hanging around).

I asked what'd happen if he had a tanker train derailment. He said it's not yet happened but he had plans for that, too. Whatever main it was would be closed for the duration of the session for HAZMAT cleaning.

I always thought that was a great idea as it teaches accidents have a ripple effect.

A high cost on some layouts

With the price for models on our layout today.  One 40' box car from Walthers can set you back for around $20 something or better.

Hope no small parts broke on Hopper or other stock!

Nice story too!

Boudreaux,  B.C.E.  R.R.

Replies...

Lee:

Sounds like your friend you mention had the same idea, though it does sound less fiddly than my approach.

However, thus far I liked my much more fiddly approach, so think I'll stick with it for the foreseeable. And yes, treating a derail such as I did definitely illustrates the "ripple effect" as you call it!

Boudreaux:

Yup, "state of the art" models today have gotten higher than a cat's back. My friend's that buy the highly detailed RTR models often have parts already loose in the box when opened for the first time, and/or grabs that are skewed, etc.

I made the decision a long time ago to limit the detail on my equipment. In fact, my preferred cars are Athearn BB, older MDC/Roundhouse, older Walthers, Train Miniature, McKeen, and such as that. I could end up with one or two of the more detailed models, but I highly suspect I wont.

At the train meet I attended a couple weeks ago, I purchased a couple P2K 8000 gal tank cars. Sat down a day or so later and began to assemble one. I wasn't very far into the assembly when I concluded there was no way these fragile/brittle details will survive operators and an operating environ. Shucks, some of the fragile and brittle parts were splitting/breaking on the sprues! (Older P2K items are "vintage" kits now.) I boxed it up and shoved it onto a shelf, and went back to work on some of my more robust models I had on hand.

A long time railroad/railroad model friend of mine that's a super detailing freak has been over to operate with me a couple/three times. He made mention that once involved in operation at hand... he didn't notice car specifics at all! I answered that, yup, I figured that out a long time ago and began to scale back on engine details and such at that time.

SO... indeed there was no damage to the robust Athearn BB hopper cars that were involved!

Andre

Fragile, pricy, but y'all just got to have it

I can relate on FRAGILE kits.

Tichy, Front Range and English and... Eastern Car Works can be fun.  But some like early P2K 2000 I have built or am going to built can test us.

I never add cut levers except on engines.

later Gator,

Boudreaux,  Pres. B. C. E.  R.R.

Really enjoyed the view up around Boston Mountain back in the day!!

I used to play RRT3 and I miss the news flash component.

Whenever you completed (or failed) an objective the newspaper would comment on it. When the economy collapsed or costs went up it would give you a headline. As a train nut I thought it was the best computer game ever.
One hundred years ago the railroads were big news and every mistake or accident was reported. The industry was more prone to operator error and structural defects than today. I know accidents still happen but they were common then.

I like the way newspaper articles present a snapshot in time of the railroad and its environment. I have not found a way to replicate that.

Shawn:

Yes, that is a lot of fun!

In the past I have treated events on my layout as a "news article" and it was a hoot! Like you say, it sort of goes better with the TOC19 eras best, to a lesser degree on up to the "Classic Era" of diesel railroading, not so relevant for the more contemporary eras. (i.e. Nigh instant online/MSM coverage now.)

Go for it!

Andre

wreck trains for incidents "beyond the basement"

To include "incidents" in an operating session, you could imagine that the trouble occurred on a connecting railroad. Then you'd need to hustle the wrecker and its boom car (and crew) to the appropriate connecting track. Most railroads had reciprocal arrangements with their neighbors, and standard charges for equipment and crews.

To the Attn: CEO A. Laming

Replies...

Big update in my "Operations in the Ozarks" thread here.

Mark:

The KC&G could use any legal source of revenue they can pursue!

Vince:

Don't know where you post went, but if'n the need arises (need a bigger hook), we'll be knockin' on your door!

All fer now.

Andre