Can a train really be derailed by a mere SUV?

[Just Me]

That case in LA where two commuter trains allegedly derailed as a result of a suicidal SUV driver,...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6870372/

,...has bugged the crud out of me.

I was thinking about that case this afternoon and wondering HTF a mere SUV could derail a damn train.

Then, as I was surfing the "boob tube", CNN played a video of an Amtrack easily blasting straight through a semi with NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER.

:shrug:

[Beaverhausen]

1. I think the tires were actually stuck in the tracks

so the train couldn't just push it out of the way.

[Warpy]

7. Right, he was jammed

His statement at the scene said he'd tried to move the SUV, jumped out at the last minute when he couldn't get it to budge.

He sounds like a screwball who thought better of what he was doing and tried to undo it. What followed really was a tragic accident.

[papau]

2. the two trains hit because one train was rocking from the collison

so you had the derailed horror.

If there had not been two trains passing there would have been a "minor" problem.

[SharonAnn]

3. And these car and engines are a little different from the old fashioned

ones used for cross country travel, if I remember correctly.

If they're not as heavy and not moving as fast, then they don't have as much intertia to push obstacles out of the way.

[CBGLuthier]

4. Pusher

Some early reports also mentioned that the practice of pushers, where the locomotive is in the rear can be more dangerous in these types of situations.

[Rick Myers]

5. My dad did 40+ years on the railroad

and once told me about a couple cars of a train being derailed by a rock the size of a gym bag... There are SO MANY variables that affect a train derailment...

[Just Me]

13. As a child, prior to the RR becoming the most regulated industry,...

,...I remember all sorts of vehicles being basically brushed easily aside by these heavier, better planted machines. I specifically remember a large truck loaded with staw that "died" on a set of tracks.

We were just three cars behind him,...and everyone was desparately trying to get him off the tracks with no avail.

He wasn't hurt,...but his truck was ripped like paper in a shredder.

:shrug:

I just can't help my skepticism about that particular event. The rubber tires being stuck in the tracks explanation really cracks me up when I consider all the crap that rolled onto tracks in the valleys of WV,...huge boulders and earth and whatnot.

:shrug:

[Richard Steele]

6. Yes it can....sometimes.

It's just random chance.
Sometimes a vehicle gets knocked aside by the train, because modern vehicles are just large boxes made of thin sheet-metal.
(Especially "SEMI" TRAILERS...they are aluminum and plywood over a 2-rail load-bearing frame)

But sometimes a large _SOLID_ component (engine, transmission, axle, etc) will go UNDER the train and get between wheel and rail...
...instant derailment!

If ONE wheel pops off that rail, the entire train will follow.

[MissB]

8. When I lived in Anchorage

(in high school), the daily paper would have a running tally each winter. Moose 2, Trains 3 - that sort of thing.

I'm not sure how much damage a moose does to a train, but I'm sure given the right conditions it could derail it.

[Xithras]

9. Ever watch a train derail? I have, and it doesn't take much.

Trains, for the most part, are just extremely heavy metal boxes sitting on wheels that balance the load between two pieces of metal (the rails). If you disrupt the balance of a moving train, too much of the weight can be placed on a single rail, leading to track failure (the track is just a piece of metal attached to some pieces of wood by several very large nails...those nails will pop right out if enough force is applied). Once a section of track fails, every traincar that hits it will derail.

The SUV didn't knock the train off the tracks, it just shifted the trains center of gravity enough to cause a track failure. THAT knocked the train off the tracks.

[Logansquare]

10. I have a friend who "re-rails" trains for a living

He operates heavy equipment that puts trains back on the tracks when they derail. I don't mean to scare you, but it happens ALL THE TIME, especially in wet weather. What made the accident in CA truly devastating was the fact that the train derailed into an oncoming freight train--that's when the train went on its side.

[DrWeird]

11. It can if there's chemtrails about.

nt

[Speck Tater]

12. I heard an on-site interview with a RR worker at the time

who said that if the engine had been pulling the train the heavy engine would have pushed the SUV off the tracks, but since the engine was pushing the train the lightweight (relatively speaking) passenger car hit the SUV and was lifted off the track.