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My guess a broken rail or some such. At 10mph I can see why the train remained upright.

Sounds like they just put some wheels on the ground?

JStryker722 wrote:My guess a broken rail or some such. At 10mph I can see why the train remained upright.

Could have been snow/ice in a crossing. Gapped switch. Thin flange on the locomotive. Any number of causes. Stuff staying upright is more about 'luck' than speed.

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CSX_CO wrote:

JStryker722 wrote:My guess a broken rail or some such. At 10mph I can see why the train remained upright.

Could have been snow/ice in a crossing. Gapped switch. Thin flange on the locomotive. Any number of causes. Stuff staying upright is more about 'luck' than speed.

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If that's the case,the Ole Maumee and Western was the luckiest haphazard railroad in the Midwest lol

JStryker722 wrote: If that's the case,the Ole Maumee and Western was the luckiest haphazard railroad in the Midwest lol

Probably helped that the railroad was being eaten by the remains of the Black Swamp. Soft ground will help stuff burrow in and keep it upright. Plus, I think them going 10 was probably 'fast' for them. Makes it tougher to get back out without some help though. But, all depends on what the wheels hit. Seen cars moving at 10 tip sideways, accordian, etc. Watched one car get quasi airborne off our dirt pile one night, while the one it was coupled to just burrowed into the dirt. Sir Issac Newton is in the drivers seat at that point. But hey, I'm just going from personal experiences with low speed derailments. I forgot we have a bevy of armchair railroad experts on here.

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CSX_CO wrote:

JStryker722 wrote: If that's the case,the Ole Maumee and Western was the luckiest haphazard railroad in the Midwest lol

Probably helped that the railroad was being eaten by the remains of the Black Swamp. Soft ground will help stuff burrow in and keep it upright. Plus, I think them going 10 was probably 'fast' for them. Makes it tougher to get back out without some help though. But, all depends on what the wheels hit. Seen cars moving at 10 tip sideways, accordian, etc. Watched one car get quasi airborne off our dirt pile one night, while the one it was coupled to just burrowed into the dirt. Sir Issac Newton is in the drivers seat at that point. But hey, I'm just going from personal experiences with low speed derailments. I forgot we have a bevy of armchair railroad experts on here.

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I wasn't being serious when I said that lol

With the relative frequency that one hears about or reads about derailments on the LSRC, it causes one to ponder just what LSRC is doing WRONG. I don't seem to hear or read about derailments on other railroad lines (shortline, regional, or Class 1) with the frequency that LSRC has them. Tracks are supposed to be inspected by a qualified track inspector. Tracks are supposed to be maintained by qualified MOW crews. It just seems as if LSRC may be taking a few too many shortcuts (i.e., inspections optional, maintenance optional) to running a safe railroad. Having spent 43 years in the railroad industry, including the final years of the Penn Central nightmare, and I can say that even Penn Central, which had a reputation for derailments caused by their "deferred maintenance" did not have them with as much relative frequency as LSRC, and Penn Central had over 20000 miles of track! Go figure! Management's choice is to either put money into track maintenance or money into picking up after derailments. It seems as if LSRC prefers the expense of cleaning up derailments over the capital investment of some new ties and ballast. Leastwise, that is my perception.

Same Spot as always, right in front of the LSRC's main office. The local newspaper photographer usually includes their sign with a bunch of derailed cars scattered all over the place. Bad for PR, but everyone in town knows whose railroad derails all the time.

HESR also must love it when they cant get over the river to Genesee Yard when LSRC derails at Washington Avenue.

Human error is all I will say about this.

LSRC has a skeleton for track crews compared to CSX. Over the 8 years that LSRC has been here I can count with less than five fingers the number of times I've the track crews welding switch points or frogs.

I totally disagree with Evan. This is not about human error. This is about brazen nonfeasance fueled by human greed. Given that, apparently, many of the derailments occur in the same place --- right outside the LSRC offices --- we can make several observations. First, LSRC Management clearly knows that they have a derailment problem and WHERE that problem is. Second, since derailments continue to repeat in the same area, that indicates that LSRC Management is failing to perform the necessary corrective track maintenance in that area so as to prevent future derailments.

The fact is that railroad track is, believe it or not, very forgiving. With slow moving trains, track must be in pretty bad shape for trains to derail.

But, it appears that the LSRC Management has adopted the "Penn Central Management Mentality", that being that it is cheaper to clean up after derailments than it is to invest in some track maintenance.

But, that is how LSRC likes it, and who are WE to say that they are wrong? I am certain that LSRC lucks out because the FRA Inspectors are all based in Detroit, and the activity in the South end of the State keeps them from getting up to Bay City on any regular basis.

Does anyone know the cause of the derailment? Too fast, spread or broken rail, picked switch? And what scale was the aftermath? Wheel on the ground, whole unit on the ground?

Not fair to pick on people before the above is known. I

This is funny. News flash people trains fall off the tracks all the time and they get picked back up un noticed. T&E public was not endangered by this, there fore it's nobodies business what happened.

Lake state did bunch of work here in Alpena they replaced the crossing and put up crossing gates on Johnson st and did US 23 in Ossineke but there no gates and 2 others streets and others south on the Huron sub. Around 2 years ago they replaced almost all of the rr ties in the yard pass through town they passed Ossineke. That's over 15 miles of track. Its probably hard to work on track that the two railroads rely on. I don't get why LSRC gets picked on so much.

MQT3001 wrote:Does anyone know the cause of the derailment?

Train fell off the track or the track fell out from under the train. Doesn't matter why at this point. LSRC has a problem that they are apparently unable or unwilling to correct. Time to reexamine the priorities in my book.

Judge for yourself, but this looks like a switch issue.

That looks to be the spur to Wabash (former Wicks) not used much at all may just have had some unforeseen issue buried in the snow. Seems to me LSRC does just fine on trackwork as I often see them working around Saginaw....a few weeks ago they were working in force on the bridge over the Saginaw river and I'm sure with snow comes plenty of work to keep the track crew busy.

I think and have always thought the LSRC was a neat railroad i have nothing but admiration for them.

Standard Railfan wrote: Train fell off the track or the track fell out from under the train. Doesn't matter why at this point. LSRC has a problem that they are apparently unable or unwilling to correct. Time to reexamine the priorities in my book.

Sh!t happens. Nothing about priorities. Had 2 derailments at Avon in under 24 hrs. One was cars bypassing during automatic classification and derailing. The other was ice in a switch point caused a car to derail. Both rerailed in house within a hour or two. If LSRC frequency of derailments is bad, I can only guess our priorities lie?

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