(The following story by Stacie Hamel appeared on the Omaha world-Herald website on January 25.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The scene was like a nightmare for anyone who has ever lived near railroad tracks or worked for a railroad.
A 128-car freight train derailed, overturning 28 cars, spilling tons of coal toward a family’s home and propane tanks. At least one propane tank burst into flames, and the residents ran for their lives, escaping the fire that destroyed their home.
The scene was reality Jan. 16 for Cory and Stacey Smith, whose mobile home near Plattsmouth, Neb., burned, and for six other families who were evacuated.
It also was reality for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway officials, who are dealing with the aftermath and will cover the families’ costs.
The reality of the scene, however, belies the statistics: The number of derailments declined 70 percent from 1980 to 2002, at least in part because of high-tech equipment capable of detecting rail and mechanical troubles before they cause problems.
BNSF officials have said the derailment near Plattsmouth might have been caused by a broken axle.
Derailments continued to decline in the first 10 months of 2003, the most recent statistics available.
“There’s really been an explosion of new technologies over the last five years,” said Keith Hawthorne, technology vice president for Transportation Technology Center Inc.
The research and development center is a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads, although the Federal Railroad Administration owns the Pueblo, Colo., center that works with several universities to identify emerging technology applicable to railroads.
“It helps us stay ahead of the curve,” Hawthorne said.
An array of sensors and detectors now exist to identify failing equipment. But perhaps the biggest advance is the recent ability to link detectors together and use the data to predict equipment failures that could cause derailments, Hawthorne and a railroad administration official said.
“A tremendous amount of research went into developing these predictive indicators,” said George Gavalla, the administration’s associate administrator for safety.
An Internet-based data system – trademarked as InteRRIS – allows a range of detectors to communicate information, Hawthorne said. The data can be sent to railroad control centers or stored for future analysis, depending on the severity of the situation.
Some of the most recently developed detectors that could be linked through the system are:
o A trackside device that listens to wheel bearings on passing trains and detects those beginning to fail. Developed at the Pueblo center, the detector categorizes the problem, ranging from a repair bulletin for the train car’s next service to an order to stop immediately.
“So far, (the detectors) are very close to 100 percent effective,” Hawthorne said.
Union Pacific Railroad, based in Omaha, has one of the detectors on a coal line around Nebraska’s Lake McConaughy; Burlington Northern Santa Fe has three.
o A prototype device from Johns Hopkins University that uses new laser-based, ultrasonic technology to detect problems in axles and wheels without touching them. That is something that might have prevented the BNSF derailment.
“It’s brand-new technology, just coming out of the laboratories,” and needs additional testing, Hawthorne said. “You’ve got to have something that will work in rain and snow and sleet. That part takes some time.”
o Machine vision, which uses digital cameras to photograph equipment on passing trains for computer analysis.
“You can look at every brake shoe on a passing train and tell which are worn out, if they’re missing,” Hawthorne said. “It’s almost an unlimited technology.”
o Positive Train Control, which ties together track switch detectors, electrical circuits in rails and Global Positioning Satellites that send information to dispatching. The system can automatically stop trains in such situations as a vandalized switch or a broken rail.
o Hot-box detectors, in use since the 1950s, that have some new tricks. Beyond simply measuring the temperatures of passing trains to detect overheated wheel bearings, the new machines give information about when a bearing is beginning to have a problem rather than when it is imminently going to fail, U.P. spokesman John Bromley said.
“We’ve almost eliminated overheated wheel bearings, what we call burn-offs, where we’ve put these machines in place,” he said. “We think it’s made a significant improvement in safety.”
o Rail detectors that use ultrasonic rays and magnetic resonance technology to find internal problems and flaws in the metal. Detectors also check track for gauge – the width between the rails – and that rails are aligned with each other.
As research continues, Hawthorne said, scientists are looking for ways to measure any kind of defect.
“Hopefully we’ll have something in just a few years to measure any kind of condition on a (train) car,” he said.
For all the technology at their disposal, railroads haven’t dispensed with the oldest inspection method: walking the train.
“So there is a lot of human and technology efforts in inspections,” Forsberg said.
If the BNSF derailment was caused by a broken axle, Forsberg said, part of the investigation will address whether it could have been spotted by any inspection.
“A broken axle is not a typical cause of a derailment. More than likely, if you’ve got a problem with a wheel set, statistically, you see a problem with bearings rather than with a broken axle,” he said. “A crack in an axle . . . that’s something the inspector would look for.”
More than half of all derailments are minor and occur in rail yards. Anything causing damage that exceeds $6,700 – “which is a fender bender to a railroad,” Forsberg said – is reportable to the Federal Railroad Administration. Accidents that cause injuries requiring more than first aid also must be reported.
It isn’t only the minor derailments that have been declining, said Gavalla of the Federal Railroad Administration. High-dollar, catastrophic derailments also have dropped.
Forsberg said the advances and improved statistics are “odd to talk about after an incident,” especially one as devastating as happened near Plattsmouth.
“But the long-term trends of the industry have been safer,” he said.
Mechanical failures, such as an axle, are the smallest of three derailment causes, he said. First is human error, followed by track or rail problems.
BNSF uses technology to improve train handling at its training center in Overland Park, Kan., where it also provides training for employees of other railroads.
“We have the world’s largest and most advanced railroad technical training center,” he said.
Industrywide, the rate of employee injuries and fatalities also has declined, according to administration statistics.
Each of the last three years, the industry has had record low numbers of employee fatalities and injuries.
Still, scenes such as the one Jan. 16 near Plattsmouth give reason for pause.
“Every time we see a derailment or a collision, basically it shows us how much more we have to do,” Gavalla said. “It’s a stark reminder that we can’t rest on our laurels, and we don’t have all the answers.”
The industry will continue to advance through training, research and new technology, said Hawthorne of the Pueblo center.
“There are always those events that are unpredictable,” he said, “but in an ideal world you don’t have any derailments or collisions.
“We’re taking every step we can toward that ideal world.”