Re: the 455 wreck location

The grade on the east side of Dallas Divide is 4% down to Ridgeway. The train was a heavy ore train with 24 box cars of ore, and 6 gondolas of coal. With no brakes it did not take long to build up speed. It was reported that it was out of control less than one mile from the summit. The RGS was not built with speed in mind anyway, so the outside rails on the curves were not highly superelevated. The faster that a train goes, the more force is applied to the flanges on the outside of a curve. Pretty soon, the force simply lifts the flanges over the rail and off go the wheels.

Raising the outside rail on curves (superelevation) is designed to compensate for this. Railroads designed for freight and slow speeds don't do this.

Heavy ore train + no brakes = speed.

Speed + low outside rail = derailment.


Luckily, no one was killed.