What caused the East Palestine Derailment?

00:00 Overview
01:26 Defect Detectors
03:02 Inspections & Staffing
05:47 ECP Brakes
07:39 Wrap Up

You can check out some of the reports used in this video for yourself:

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Some footage in this video was borrowed from other channels (with Creative Commons licensing). Check them out below:

[olafvidar]

I worked for CSX, 13 years before I quit. Now, imagine working for a company where management constantly seeks a way to fire you. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Some employees actually have "run off" insurance from private insurance companies. Thing is, I was a company man. I really cared about their interest. The adversarial nature of management, over time was a huge drain. These changes started in the mid nineties. I have to believe in what I'm doing and respect a organization. Over time, these were eroded to the point I started losing respect for myself for being part of that company. So it was time to go. No regrets. And this accident in Ohio doesn't surprise me one bit...

[diamondsndregs]

Well done. I've watched a lot of footage about this derailment and railroad safety issues, and this does a good job explaining a complicated topic in a short video.

[rjb]

This is a good video, however, there are some errors & incorrect assumptions in it. I'm speaking as a retired 40 yr railway veteran. I worked as a Conductor & later, system safety specialist for Canadian & US Operations on a Canadian class 1.
Most derailments in the FRA listings while preventable are minor in nature. Some are not preventable.
Most wayside "hotbox" detectors are also equipped to detect dragging equipment. Dragging equipment may cause derailments, or may be an indication of one that has already started to occur. Most wayside detectors do not involve dispatcher s in any way other than they may hear the report or be advised of a defect report by crews on the train so affected.
You correctly note that there are other detectors that exist, some which may have detected the subject hot bearing before derailment. Increased spacing of detectors even standard models would reduce hot wheel derailments, but not by much.
Wayside inspections by train crews & other staff as well as inspections in terminals by qualified car inspectors will not usually identify bearings which will burn off later . Wheel bearing failures can take time as you have noted, but some are fast burns which may fail in a the spaces between detectors and visual wayside inspections by personnel.

[wasatchrangerailway]

ECP braking does not stop derailments like the one in E. Palistine. ECP braking stops a train quicker because the LAP air signal does not have to propagate. Secondly, a train must be taken out of service for several weeks while the ECP brakes are installed. Trains like coal trains, and other unit trains are the only ones that can have ECP brakes installed on them because rarely are they taken apart.

[ArtStoneUS]

At 2:15, the train is not "literally on fire". After the sun goes down, security cameras go into infrared mode. What you are seeing is heat, not fire. The video was carefully cropped to make that much less obvious.

[glindabeaven]

Sounds like they need to have independent inspection just like the trucking industry has with DOT scales employees that work for the government instead of relying on their own employee's Plus they need to be fined and held accountable for failure to do the inspections due to employees shortages

[brandtbecker]

Most of this goes back to the toxic work environment created by the lousy leadership had by the major - and some minor - US railroads. This was especially true in the Lac Megantic tragedy. Reduced crew size and lack of a decent quality of life doesn't help; again, the suits all wanted more money for themselves and cut the work force accordingly. I remember myself the bad morale had on the last RR I worked for as a conductor. And of course, management abolutely hates spending money for track maintenance - somehow hoping that those problems will go away all by themselves. There are also far fewer people available trackside now to do roll-by inspections. Once upon a time, there were agents in the various town depots to do this. Again, all in the name of hoarding money at the top that these support forces were cut and eventually eliminated.

[heronimousbrapson]

Maybe if they still had cabooses with an observer (and a shorter train) the fire on the axle could have been visually detected?

[dannygayler]

So very true, cutting wages and employing less staff, a recipe for disaster big profits don't improve safety, unless these profits are directed at safety first !

[dmr]

At last! A sensible, non-hysterical, blame-game report on the state of the railway and the issues that NS has created itself. I've seen so much reporting on this that is so politically motivated and blamed on the wrong people. Any company should have the interests of its staff, environment and customers at the top of any list before handing out mega profits.

[benjlar]

i think you covered this well. im a class 1 railroader and where i work we have an rtc mechanical that monitors the hotbox detectors... for example one night they called us on the radio stating __ axel is heating up and to do a positive reduction with the air brakes... and if that doesnt work when the next hotbox goes off they will call us again to stop and inspect that car. doesnt seem like NS had that or set the alarm temperature too high on the detectors. as for ECP brakes its just not practical. railroads have been using air brakes for 100 years that do work well. the problem is the mechanical side of it.... if you cut all your car mechanics who is gonna inspect? roll-bys need to be brought back also. It was a benefit back then having the cabooses on....

[trainsmachineryldegmtrains]

Interesting video, great investigation! MEGA LIKE & Subscribe
All the best from Dublin & Happy Easter
Andrew

[dougdoeright]

There is a really good video by a fellow who works for the rail road showing a bearing failure and the aftermath on the axle.

[stevehanlon]

the NTSB report will be all about the DOT 111 car and not the failed bearing or the defect detectors.

[mlewis]

I am a retired locomotive engineer. You imply that having a helper engine in the middle of the consist would cause the air brakes to apply more quickly. The brakes on such engines are cut out and add no pumping power to the brake line. If it takes 9 or 10 seconds for the brakes on a train that length, it would take the same time if it has a helper engine. The difference in time that an ECP braking system would save would be important. Trains are like giant slinkies. The drawbars at each end of the car stretch to ease the pressure on the knuckles. Trains may weigh 20 thousand tons or more. No single knuckle can stand that much weight. The spring-loaded drawbar dissipates some of that force. In an emergency braking, such as at East Palestine, all of the cars behind the break will run into the stopped cars at the speed the train was traveling. On a large train you could have 10 or 15 thousand tons smashing against the stopped cars. Getting brakes applied 9 or 10 seconds earlier could mean the difference between a minor or no derailment and a disaster.

There is another advantage to ECP brakes. It wouldn't be massively expensive to add a small heat sensor, like we have in car engines, to each set of wheels. You could run the wiring in with the ECP wiring harness. This could alert the engineer immediately if there was an overheated wheel instead of having to wait 20 miles or so for the detector.

[ThomasHalways]

Extremely interesting, but you should adjust the audio volume in your videos. Audio level is very low, demands to crank up everything to max to hear the narrative.

[bradleyogden]

At one of my former employers we shipped hazardous materials. Before the car was released for pickup by the connecting railroad we would visually / physically inspect them before they was ready for shipment. As far as I know none of the cars from that industry has ever caused any problems from simple leaks up to causing any derailments. Maybe that car wasn't inspected before it was released to Norfolk Southern.

[michaelwoods]

The railroads worry more about blame than anything. They were very disappointed in not being able to blame the engineer.

[jobellecollie]

Human knowledge and the wisdom they learned over the years. A machine cannot replace human skill!

[rachelcarre]

An excellent video and a great example of what happens when regulations on safety critical, mass transport systems are relaxed. The ‘market’ takes risky shortcuts and lessons have to be relearned.