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How not to deliver cars.


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2 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

I can understand a lorry going under a low  bridge. But how does this happen when railway stock ans structures are built to a loading gauge?

Many decades ago, US railroads started building freight cars with excess height. The 'extra bit' was marked on the car ends with white paint for visibility. No doubt many more cars have now been built to the higher standard, and most mainlines are gauge-cleared for that. But some lines aren't, and someone is supposed to know. Unlike the roads, it may not be the driver's responsibility. 

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2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Many decades ago, US railroads started building freight cars with excess height. The 'extra bit' was marked on the car ends with white paint for visibility. No doubt many more cars have now been built to the higher standard, and most mainlines are gauge-cleared for that. But some lines aren't, and someone is supposed to know. Unlike the roads, it may not be the driver's responsibility. 

 

With that bit of extra knowledge, looking at the film again, the white end bit would have cleared the bridge.

 

Mike.

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In the 1800's there were lots of accidents with trains hitting bridges and tunnels and sideswiping adjacent tracks as cars and engines got wider and taller.  Several tunnels on my prototype were changed from double track to single track to accommodate taller cars.  Bridges and tunnels may have been made 100 years ago.

 

It may be that that bridge is in a yard, so the TRAIN clearance process wouldn't have looked at it and in the past auto rack business was separated in dedicated trains, never passing through yards.  When the traffic dropped due to COVID and the tariffs, some dedicated auto trains went away as a cost saving measure and auto racks were carried on regular manifest trains, so auto racks went into the yard instead of bypassing the yard on the main.

 

I had a similar thing happen on one of my territories.  Railroad A and Railroad B had parallel tracks into a city next to each other.  The railroads merged and what was two separate mains, now became one "double track" main.  Unfortunately under one bridge Railroad B was 6 inches higher than railroad A and the Railroad A dispatcher put a train with double stacks on the "other" main and sheared the top off several containers.

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3 minutes ago, pat141 said:

I think the driver should know better and stop to see what the clearance is like before

doing all that damage, that will cost somebody $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Or the signalman?

 

It looks like an “off the main” line, so could have been diversionary or through a yard under an older bridge, it’ll be fine, those yanks live convertables :lol:

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So the first clue is that at the beginning of the video the autorack in frame has already had the top removed, and thus is going under the bridge for a 2nd (3rd, etc.) time.

 

Going to the actual YouTube page, in the comments it is mentioned as happening about a month ago in Memphis TN, which a search brings up some more details.  Including this link to Google Maps showing the location, which is a dead end spur to an oil facility:

https://goo.gl/maps/nC1MWHqpbPHy8XPS9

 

I would agree with Dave - current situations meant the autoracks were on a train that normally didn't have autoracks, and thus the presumed switching never had to worry about excess height equipment at that location before.

 

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