The item made it from UPS to my local PO (UPS surepost) and is expected to be delivered today, assuming last night's 5.7 earthquake which occurred 70 miles from me didn't knock it off the shelf
We had a derailment here in NW Indiana several years ago. Something like 20 houses burned in the fire after. A couple of tank cars were left to burn out.
BennyR wrote:
There seems to be a rash of them lately. Less than a half mile from the Tehachapi Loop on Monday morning.
Back in my ill-spent youth (It was wonderful!), I worked for a bit as a rear-end brakeman for the Santa Fe when there were still such things as brakemen (and cabooses). If you ever closely examined the size of the flange of the wheel on a freight car truck and then looked at the car's size and gross weight of say 80 tons, you would be absolutely shocked at how little keeps trains on the tracks. The federal safety standards are a bit obscure, but the total allowable variation in the size of the flange is well under 2".
I've been over Tehachapi and even veterans are glad when they make the other side. Of course El Cajon is worse and every few years someone loses one going down the LA side and the near neighborhood gets wiped out.
Still when you consider the literally billions of ton miles moved by railroads each year and how few wrecks there are, it's a testament to track maintenance, technology, and yes government regulation.
I had a package show that a couple years ago. I called to get some information and they (UPS) said that it's a default message when there are rail issues. It's generic to some degree, and doesn't mean it's an actual derailment. At least that's what the woman on the phone said to me.
