Level crossing stupidity...

[martin_wynne]

50 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

A very confusing photo!  I am struggling to see how the loco ended up there and at that angle unless it had hit a very solid obstruction and with a lot more stock behind it pushing, but the lack of more obvious and substantial damage both to the loco and to the environs seems inconsistent with that.  Maybe if there had been a washout/earthslip under the left hand running rail and the rest of the train has since been recovered?  If that's a dirt track level crossing, it seems irrelevant to the derailment.

 

In the forground are three white-painted upright posts made of angle or old rail.  The left hand one looks as though it may have been bashed by something moving from the left of the picture? 

 

Or has the loco run away and deraild from that track in the foreground, the front end digging in first??  Again the lack of ground damage is hard to explain. 

 

Perhaps I'm being misled by telescopic lens compression.

 

The lack of damage to the loco was my reason for suggesting a set of catch points and a lowish-speed SPAD at the junction signal. If left-hand running it is behind a junction signal and before the junction. The long lens makes it difficult to judge the layout.

 

It could of course belong in the "How realistic is your model?" thread -- in which case the modeller has made a fine job of the windscreen wipers. 🙂

 

Martin.

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Did the Kangaroo on the front give it away? 🤣

 

 

First was the Genesee & Wyoming colours on a non-US loco and track characteristics, then I spotted the 'roo

[Titan]

I have an alternate theory, which could be wildly out but here goes:

 

The loco was travelling backwards light engine from right to left along the track in the bottom right hand side of the photo. further to the right is a level crossing on which it derailed, plowing along to the left where it encountered the concrete, which it mounted and pushed towards the rails on the left distorting them in the manner shown.

[Michael Hodgson]

2 minutes ago, melmerby said:

then I spotted the 'roo

 

Perhaps he's got a grievance against the white man building railways across his ancient hunting grounds.

Do you think he derailed it single-handed?

 

[melmerby]

 

 

Click for info

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by melmerby

[Grovenor]

17 minutes ago, martin_wynne said:

 

The lack of damage to the loco was my reason for suggesting a set of catch points and a lowish-speed SPAD at the junction signal. If left-hand running it is behind a junction signal and before the junction. The long lens makes it difficult to judge the layout.

 

It could of course belong in the "How realistic is your model?" thread -- in which case the modeller has made a fine job of the windscreen wipers. 🙂

 

Martin.

What junction signal? Being NSW that signal is most likely just a standard block signal on plain line. See https://www.nswrail.net/library/signalling.php and there would not be catch points in the main running line!

PS. The latest photo does suggest that the loco was approaching a trailing junction which the signal would be protecting. The term junction signal usually implies a signal leading to a facing junction.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Grovenor

[boxbrownie]

Definitely looks like it’s running over a culvert or stream, seems to be the same concrete “edging” on the left hand side.

[melmerby]

It happened on 17th January 2007

Other images from Getty:

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by melmerby

[corneliuslundie]

I was beginning to think the same. So possibly the culvert collapsed under the loco.

Jonathan

[Michael Hodgson]

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, martin_wynne said:

 

 

It was lucky the loco missed the OLE mast.

 

Telegraph Pole…….if it’s the one near the nose of the diesel you mean?

[melmerby]

3 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

I was beginning to think the same. So possibly the culvert collapsed under the loco.

Jonathan

It was suggested that a rail buckled in the heat (it was midsummer in NSW) and the loco derailed into the culvert.

[melmerby]

1 minute ago, boxbrownie said:

Telegraph Pole…….if it’s the one near the nose of the diesel you mean?

Power line.

[boxbrownie]

3 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Power line.

Wooden whatever it is…..

[boxbrownie]

6 minutes ago, melmerby said:

It was suggested that a rail buckled in the heat (it was midsummer in NSW) and the loco derailed into the culvert.

The right hand rail certainly looks more buckled than damaged from the incident.

[melmerby]

12 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Wooden whatever it is…..

You can see the wires & insulators on the arm at the top of the pole, definitely power.

[stewartingram]

Still haven't spotted the 'roo....

[boxbrownie]

4 hours ago, melmerby said:

You can see the wires & insulators on the arm at the top of the pole, definitely power.

Indeed, but I’d be surprised if that was anything to do with the OHLE, more likely local domestic power distribution. 

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, stewartingram said:

Still haven't spotted the 'roo....

Between the A & S on the nose.

[Nick C]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

It happened on 17th January 2007

Other images from Getty:

 

And more on Flickr, looks like the recovery didn't go entirely to plan either...: 

 

 

 

 

[boxbrownie]

Now…..that’s just careless 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

And more on Flickr, looks like the recovery didn't go entirely to plan either...: 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the whole album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/albums/72157594513793185/with/363284181/

[PhilJ W]

7 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Definitely looks like it’s running over a culvert or stream, seems to be the same concrete “edging” on the left hand side.

 

7 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

I was beginning to think the same. So possibly the culvert collapsed under the loco.

Jonathan

There's also a new concrete pipe in the foreground of a couple of pics which suggests it might well be a culvert collapse.

[kevinlms]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

There's also a new concrete pipe in the foreground of a couple of pics which suggests it might well be a culvert collapse.

The question still remains unanswered. What is this doing in the 'Level Crossing Stupidity' thread?

[Dunsignalling]

2 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

The question still remains unanswered. What is this doing in the 'Level Crossing Stupidity' thread?

Providing an interesting diversion while we wait for somebody to do something daft....🙂

 

There appears to be some sort of unsurfaced track crossing the line in the first shot to make it (very) tenuously on-topic,  but it clearly had no involvement in the derailment.

 

John