Near Head-On in Lexington, KY

[jcmark4501]

Details are sketchy but, it sounds like a northbound got by the signal at Greendale with a soutbound only a few miles away.

[J-man]

Uh oh.... time to turn on the radio.

[Dieselfan]

By the video on the Lexington T.V station,the two trains were able to get stopped with only a couple hundred feet between them. Luckily  this close call ended safely!

[Michael Knight]

Does anyone have more details to share, such as the identity of the trains involved?

Thankfully, it appears a disaster was avoided!

[Dieselfan]

Looks like both trains were double stacks from the tv video...s/b train led by NS 9917.....n/b  led by UP 4071?  If you have highspeed internet,go to http://www.wkyt.com/ for video.

Or go to http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/news.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-18-0011.html To see a picture of just how close a call it was.

[alxmoss1992]

Looks like both trains were double stacks from the tv video...s/b train led by NS 9917.....n/b  led by UP 4071?  If you have highspeed internet,go to http://www.wkyt.com/ for video.

Or go to http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/news.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-18-0011.html To see a picture of just how close a call it was.

Well dag on. Just another chance for the media to make trains look bad.

[Dieselfan]

They were trying  their best to

[jcmark4501]

The UP train was an intermodal. I saw him earlier in the day and he was flat out hauling the mail.

[GAandFLA-RR]

The crap's goin' hit the ceiling fan now...................

[TB4JY]

OK, question guys.... The article says (IN PART): "That's when officials say the conductor of the Cincinnati-bound train ran a set of lights..." So have times changed and now the conductor is responsible for the engineer running a stop signal (Assume they ran a stop signal?) or is it because he's in the cab with the engineer and because he's the ?conductor? the responsibility falls on him, or am I missing something here?

Maybe because he's in charge of the train.

[swinstandley]

The NS ATCS Monitor log file from Tuesday afternoon shows that the two trains stopped at Spurr Road at 3:53 PM. The northbound had a red signal at Greendale (MP 77.4) on track #1 while the southbound was to switch to track #2 at Greendale with green signals all the way to MP 83.2.  Can the switch be set for the southbound and the northbound train still make it through that switch?  The picture on the channel 36 web site looks like the UP locomotive is just north of  the switch.

Stew

[Michael Knight]

Switches can be run-through very easily.

[Junior]

OK, question guys.... The article says (IN PART): "That's when officials say the conductor of the Cincinnati-bound train ran a set of lights..." So have times changed and now the conductor is responsible for the engineer running a stop signal (Assume they ran a stop signal?) or is it because he's in the cab with the engineer and because he's the “conductor” the responsibility falls on him, or am I missing something here?

I have learned in my 9 years with NS that is always the Conductors fault.

The railroad rumor mill is hard at work on this one.  If I find out the whole story from a dependable source I will share it.

Later
Junior

[GaryWhitis]

 The trains involved No 230 Northbound and No 236 Southbound.  The train crews communicated with each other and stopped 700 ft. from each other. No crews have been charged with running stop signal.  The Engineer and Conductor both would be charged with running a stop signal if it happens.

[J-man]

The only thing I've heard is that the Northbound had a false clear @ Fayette and apparently this was verified through the event recorder, so no charges were made against the crew, and both crews are back to work. 

[Dieselfan]

Thank goodness the crew was cleared of fault. That's got to make the crews think twice when they see a signal indication,if thats really what they're  supposed to be seeing!!

[geno404]

Just curious as to how the event recorder works especially with regards to the signal system? 

I was aware that it recorded speed, braking, various settings in the cab, but didn't realize that they could figure out what color the signal was using the event recorder (since this isn't cab signal territory).   

What all can they gather off the event recorder?  It's obviously a lot more than I thought and got my curiousity going.

Glad that they didn't have a bad outcome here.  I presume that if they missed by just 700 feet,  if either train (who would have covered 700 feet at 50 miles per hour initially in a matter of seconds) would have applied brakes just a few seconds later, they would not have gotten stopped short of each other!   

[Michael Knight]

The signal systems have event recorders, both in the field and in the dispatcher's office.

[Michael Knight]

Also, the on-board cameras on the lead locomotives can show which signal indication was illuminated.

[geno404]

Ah, both make sense.   I was thinking in terms of the on board event recorder on the locmotive only. 

How widespread are the cameras on NS locomotives (or throughout the industry for that matter)?

[Michael Knight]

Cameras are now fairly common on modern lead units belonging to the large Class 1 railroads.

NS has cameras on at least a third of their fleet, maybe half.

[jcmark4501]

I have learned in my 9 years with NS that is always the Conductors fault.

The railroad rumor mill is hard at work on this one.  If I find out the whole story from a dependable source I will share it.

I see times have changed since my day as the engineer would have been charged with running a stop board or going through a switch. Didn't matter if the conductor was in the cab or not as he wasn't running the engine. The conductor is always in charge of the train and he can yell all he wants but if the engineer doesn?t listen there's not much he can do depending on the time factor.

Didn't know there was no blame assigned, that is good news given the mindset of most railroad officials... assuming they haven't changed.

First, I think the person writing that story had no idea what she was talking about. One of the news channels called me at work before they called Norfolk Southern.

Second, with the Conductor and Engineer in the lead unit, they are both equally responsible for running red boards. Even if the conductor cannot make the engineer stop, he still has a dump valve on his side to put the train in emergency.