Kansas City freight derailment caught on camera

[Ed-Hunter]

Virtual Railfan cameras caught a derailment live on cam earlier today at Kansas City’s Santa Fe Junction

no injuries reported

 

[the sniper]

I meant to post this. Incredible that it happened in front of one of their live web cams, even if derailments are far more common over there. Very lucky in various ways! Lucky escape for the crew (and the truck under the bridge), bet the enthusiast couldn't believe his eyes. What a scene!

 

[nlogax]

Frightening stuff! What isn't evident from that webcam angle is what appears to be a staff building below the bridge where the derailment started. The truss at the far right in the footage is the bridge over the Kansas River. Luck was obviously on the side of quite a few people there today.



Going by the exact location where things began to go wrong, the switch would appear to be an obvious culprit.

 

[the sniper]

The live clear up operation is here:

Rewinding 12 hours on this feed, I note that by 0845 a BNSF train had been allowed (the first to do so?) to pass underneath the derailed train, seemingly under caution, just under an hour after the derailment... Time is money! Not sure it'd have opened up quite so quickly here.

 

[ac6000cw]

Looks like both locos and the last remaining freight car are now upright, re-railed and moved a bit further across the viaduct (to the right). I assume the rest of the train has been pulled back or lifted off the viaduct.

The train crew had a very lucky escape there...probably helped by it being a ballasted bridge and the locos derailing towards the other track (otherwise they might have gone over the side...)

Update: First 'revenue' train - a double-stack intermodal - over the viaduct at 04:52 (local time) this morning.

 

[Gostav]

Rewinding 12 hours on this feed, I note that by 0845 a BNSF train had been allowed (the first to do so?) to pass underneath the derailed train, seemingly under caution, just under an hour after the derailment... Time is money! Not sure it'd have opened up quite so quickly here.

I think that is acceptable if the line is freight only and no injury.

 

[Ed-Hunter]

I meant to post this. Incredible that it happened in front of one of their live web cams, even if derailments are far more common over there. Very lucky in various ways! Lucky escape for the crew (and the truck under the bridge), bet the enthusiast couldn't believe his eyes. What a scene!

Here is the video that guy shot

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I posted elsewhere but I lived in Kansas City, MO and also worked both there and KC, KS and drove right by this track at least twice a week for 2 years. Yikes

 

[ac6000cw]

The cleanup and repair condensed into 40 minutes:

...so a a few hours under 2 days from derailment to first 'revenue' train over the line - doubtless helped a lot by the easy access to the site and that the bridge looks like it wasn't significantly damaged.