Re: NNG: Finger Lakes Railway locomotive rolls over after striking portable derail placed to protect track workers

For those not familiar -

On a common carrier railroad, there has to be a FRA approved program to protect any Roadway Worker (track, signal, etc.) working near or in foul of any track. There are specific methods to create safe working limits depending on the conditions including what authority is needed to occupy the track.

One of those methods is to create inaccessible track which can include the use of portable details, as in the photos. And the news article mentions it was there to protect track work being done.

This was probably a one person crew based on the article and the presence of a remote control box on the front of the locomotive. As long as there was some kind of requirement by rule or track bulletin in effect to stop short of a derail/red flag at that location, it was likely the engineer's fault, regardless of their visibility running backwards. Plus, their engineer license is required to be suspended for failing to stop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2022 08:03PM by Dan Robirds.