| Posted by Dana M. on September 3, 2022 | |
Steve - I'm trying to figure this out, too! Your description states the train was being shoved into the yard from right to left? That means from the direction of the Portland Ave. East overpass, right? That would mean, if it was shoving from that direction, that light pole would have been taken out, and that would be laying on the ground. That is NOT possible in this situation, if the train was indeed shoving right to left (photo view) as you state. I googled this yard on Google Maps, and the only way this could have happened is the train way being shoved left to right, towards the Portland Ave. East overpass, and the train picked a switch and this is the result as the train took two different paths of trackage. It does, and can, happen, as evidenced here. Wow!
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Confusing Photo ! The Red Stacks far right . aside from front trucks , look intact and on a separate path , while Yang Ming Stack looks to be on a separate path ! The Red Stacks got shoved all the way to the far right track without taking down the light pole ? I see the gouge marks on the ground
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| Posted by SES on September 3, 2022 | |
The only way this scenario could have worked in my mind is the car crosswise between the 2 tracks had to be the last car in the string. It derailed and was pushed over into another line of cars, shoving the last car of the other line of cars off the other track.
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| Posted by SES on September 3, 2022 | |
....and judging by the dirt marks and unearthed concrete under the crosswise railcar, the upper string of cars was probably shoving in the opposite direction because it looks like that crosswise car was shoved back several feet in the opposite direction it was going as it derailed. So basically, 2 strings of cars were being shoved in opposing directions on 2 separate tracks. One car derailed on the end, moved into the other track and was hit by the opposing shove and pushed back several feet.
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| Posted by FSWood on September 3, 2022 | |
My speculation after looking at both this and Google maps is that these cars were moving from our left to our right and split the switch which is just out of frame to left. Car with 2 red containers which is to right of car with Yang Ming container straddled the diverging tracks until they became too far apart for that to continue & it derailed at this end and pulled Yang Ming container car off the tracks, causing grooves in dirt. Note lattice mast on ground behind that Yang Ming container, it fell to right from foundation which is displaced to the right under that car thereby indicating car with Yang Ming container was moving left to right.
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| Posted by SES on September 4, 2022 | |
Another detail supporting my theory of 2 separate lines of cars being pushed in opposite directions on 2 separate tracks are the switch machines on the 2 switches in the lower track. Note the switch machine to the right was swept off the headblocks but the one to the left appears to be intact. Had there been one string of cars moving from left to right with them having split the switch, both switch machines would've been swept off their headblocks by the car straddling both tracks.
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Most likely did a shove move and ran through a switch to the left. Then went forward to the right effectively make it possible for the cars to go two separate directions. This is a common human factor incident. Hopefully no one on the ground was hurt in the process.
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Here's my theory, the train was either going forward, or backward to move these sets around. I believe it either picked a switch, caught half of the train on another track, and derailed it. It can happen.
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| Posted by SES on September 11, 2022 | |
The only argument I have with the left to right shove and the train picked the switch, taking two separate paths is I only see one switch machine torn off its headblocks. It would seem the low clearance of the crosswise Yang Ming car would have torn all the switch machines off their base. It's hard to make out but all the others look to be intact.
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