Australian 57-mile runaway

[AndrewE]

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...iled-no-driver-port-hedland-western-australia says

A train loaded with iron ore and operated by BHP ran away without a driver for 57 miles (92km) before being forcibly derailed, the company and Australian authorities have said...
At approximately 0440 on 5 November 2018, the driver of a loaded ore train consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons stopped at the 211km point. The driver alighted from the locomotive to inspect an issue with a wagon... With no one on board, the train travelled for 92km until about 0505, when the train was deliberately derailed at a set of points operated by the control centre, about 119 km from Port Hedland.

The driver will have a red face - and not just from being left behind standing in the sun.

 

[hluraven]

That would be an average speed of 137mph which seems somewhat implausible.

 

[deltic]

Another news report stated it did 92km in about 50mins - which is still a fair old average speed

 

[ac6000cw]

I wonder if it rolled away just by gravity (probably most likely), or if it was under power?

Incidentally, note the train length - 268 wagons - that's heading towards 40,000 tonnes train weight...(they appear to run 35+ tonne axle-load bogie wagons, as you might expect on that sort of dedicated heavy-haul railway).

 

[philthetube]

Tea, no biscuits

 

[ac6000cw]

Tea, no biscuits

Quite - I wonder if the train was bought to a stop using dynamic braking (on the locos), and the driver didn't set the train brakes properly before leaving the cab...(according to a comment on another website, the train was stopped on the steepest downhill gradient on the line).

 

[AndrewE]

Quite - I wonder if the train was bought to a stop using dynamic braking (on the locos), and the driver didn't set the train brakes properly before leaving the cab...(according to a comment on another website, the train was stopped on the steepest downhill gradient on the line).

If there was some need to go and look at the brakes somewhere on the train I would imagine they were not working as they should have been. I wonder how long it took to rescue the driver after he had been left on his own? Hopefully he would have had a hand-held radio or phone and had not just been relying on a phone in the cab...
It must have been quite a spectacular (and expensive) wreck. Doubtless there will be pictures in due course.
ps there are: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11...y-bhp-iron-ore-train-derailment-site/10469802
https://thewest.com.au/business/min...re-train-south-of-port-hedland-ng-b881013125z
includes

The mining giant was forced to deliberately derail a fully-laden 2.6km-long iron ore train early on Monday morning after the driver alighted to inspect a carriage and the train carried on unattended.
The train — with four locomotives and 268 wagons — careered for 92km at average speeds of 110km/h before it was derailed near Turner, about 120km south of Port Hedland.
BHP said it derailed the train from its remote operations centre about 50 minutes later by switching a set of points on the track.
No-one was injured but the company this morning estimated that about 1.5km of track had been damaged in the incident.
“At this stage we anticipate the recovery process to take about one week,” a spokeswoman said.

That's pretty good going for the repair, but I guess they chose to drop it where the damage to the main line would be minimised.

 

[big all]

wow horrific

 

[ac6000cw]

but I guess they chose to drop it where the damage to the main line would be minimised.

From a website comment by someone who knows the operations well - yes, they did choose the derailment location carefully. Apparently about 190 wagons stayed on the track, the rest (and the two leading locos) were derailed. The other two locos were further back in the train so were not derailed (the train was using 'distributed power' with mid-train/rear locos, I guess in a 2-1-1 configuration).

 

[theageofthetra]

Given how remote an area this is how did they get the team there to derail the train?

 

[ac6000cw]

It was derailed at a remotely-controlled switch (points).

This is the railway - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Newman_railway - a quote from that Wikipedia page:

The Mount Newman railway runs for 426 kilometres, from Newman to Port Hedland and is one of Australia’s longest private railways. The line, along with its spur lines to Mount Whaleback, Orebodies 18, 23 and 25, Jimblebar, Yandi and Area C, services the iron ore mines at Newman. It has the longest and heaviest trains in the world.[1] The railway line was officially opened on 22 January 1969 by David Brand.[5]

Voice and data communications utilise a digitally trunked P25 VHF radio system and SDH transmission via either fiber or microwave linked repeater sites. The vast majority of remote repeater sites are solar powered with generator backup. The system is maintained by BHP Billiton Rail Communication Technicians based out of Port Hedland's Nelson Point and Newman. All track side infrastructure such as wayside monitoring equipment, signals, switch motors, telemetry data and monitoring devices are solar powered and are monitored and controlled out of the Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC)in Perth.

The rail journey from Newman to Port Hedland typically takes about eight hours. The 268 car trains are 2.89 kilometres long with each car carrying up to 138 tonnes.[1]

At the end of 2012, BHP Billiton opened its new train control facility. All train control function now operates from Perth.[1]

On 21 June 2001, the line broke the world record for the heaviest train as well as the longest train when a train weighing 99,734 tons and formed of 682 wagons ran for 275 kilometres between Yandi and Port Hedland. The train was 7.3 kilometres long, carried 82,000 tons of iron ore and was hauled by eight GE AC6000CW locomotives.[6][7]

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Even bigger ore trains are planned in South Africa...
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news...est-train-heralds-manganese-export-drive.html

Last month Transnet ran a 375-wagon test train with distributed power on the 861 km Sishen – Saldanha iron ore line to determine whether longer trains could be used to raise capacity for manganese.
Rail could then capture around 1·2 million tonnes a year that currently moves by road from mine to port.
Iron ore trains on the Sishen – Saldanha route usually consist of 342 wagons hauled by eight electric and diesel-electric locomotives.
If Transnet succeeds in running 375-wagon manganese trains on a regular basis, at 4 km long they would be the longest production trains in the world, each carrying around 22 500 tonnes of manganese ore.

 

[LesS]

According to current reports there has been a series of failures.
1st; the brakes clearly failed while the driver was inspecting a waggon.
2nd; the vigilance control must have also failed.
3rd; automatic stops at red lights have also failed.

There are access roads to all parts of the line so equipment can easily be brought in.
I have seen some images of the pile up - not very pretty.

By contrast, the nearby Rio line is automatic with no drivers or train crew. The trains have greater control measures from the operation centre; which is is Perth some 2,000 miles away.

There will be shortage of iron ore until the track is restored and this has already been reflected in the international price.

 

[Groningen]

Sorry but there is no excuses for this. Damage cost will be high. If they did not derail that train how far would it be kept on running? Imagine that the engineer did not have a phone; how did he than inform the control room?

 

[43096]

One of the lead locomotives (and shown in the video linked to above) was EMD SD70ACe 4472 and it is totally wrecked - no bogies, loco upside down and most of the bodywork gone.

Bet the NRM would repair it...

 

[AndrewE]

One of the lead locomotives (and shown in the video linked to above) was EMD SD70ACe 4472 and it is totally wrecked - no bogies, loco upside down and most of the bodywork gone.
Bet the NRM would repair it...

With that number it must surely be sacrosanct!
(doing the forensic investigation on a heap of scrap that big will be a challenge, that's if the brake valves have even survived.)

 

[43096]

With that number it must surely be sacrosanct!
(doing the forensic investigation on a heap of scrap that big will be a challenge, that's if the brake valves have even survived.)

The more important bit will be finding the data recorder and hoping the data has remained intact.

 

[axlecounter]

According to current reports there has been a series of failures.
1st; the brakes clearly failed while the driver was inspecting a waggon.
2nd; the vigilance control must have also failed.
3rd; automatic stops at red lights have also failed.

Seems quite an unlikely chain of failure...there must be more to it.

 

[Groningen]

How long will the line be blocked?

 

[AndrewE]

How long will the line be blocked?

See posts 7 and 9!

 

[kilonewton]

https://www.watoday.com.au/national...s-a-second-train-derails-20181111-p50fe0.html[/URL]

A second iron ore train has derailed in WA's outback within a week.

Mineral Resources Limited and Arc Infrastructure have confirmed that about 30 empty iron ore wagons derailed south of Norseman on Sunday morning, following the deliberate derailment of a runaway BHP train in the state's north earlier in the week.
The MRL locomotive was travelling from Esperance to an iron ore mine in Koolyanobbing around 7.30am when the derailment occurred.

No one was injured, however damage was caused to the wagons and a section of the Noresman to Esperance track.

A statement provided by MRL to Fairfax read, initial investigations the derailment indicated that "all safe train operating procedures were followed at all times".

"A detailed investigation has commenced to confirm the cause of derailment but, at this stage, it appears that localised heavy rains and flash flooding washed out some ballast from under a small section of the track," it read.

"The focus now is on safely clearing the site and rebuilding the damaged section of the track."

As the incident occurred, BHP's iron ore rail services were getting back up and running after one of the multibillion-dollar mining company's train was deliberately derailed on route to Port Hedland.

The runaway BHP train, consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons filled with iron ore, has caused headaches ever since last week's derailment.

The incident meant a substantial clean-up bill for BHP operations, and a disruption to iron ore shipments out of WA.

On Sunday, a BHP spokeswoman said the service was now back on track.

"The wreckage from the site was cleared from the tracks on Friday and track repair work is progressing well," she said.

"Rail operations recommenced last night with additional controls in place to ensure safe operations.”

A regulatory investigation is ongoing, and controls on board the trains have been risk assessed.

The investigation will attempt to understand what happened after the driver left the train to inspect an issue with an ore car.

While the driver was off the train, it began moving. Every safety mechanism on the train failed as it hurtled driverless through the Pilbara desert.

Over 50 minutes, it travelled 92 kilometres at an average speed of 110km/h.

Finally, at 5.30am, BHP's remote operations centre in Perth deliberately derailed it near Turner’s Siding, an isolated section of the track 120km south of Port Hedland.

Back up and running. The other derailment was at the other end of WA.

 

[AndrewE]

https://www.watoday.com.au/national...s-a-second-train-derails-20181111-p50fe0.html

Back up and running. The other derailment was at the other end of WA.

That puts our "derailments" into the shade!

 

[Taunton]

Pictures and video

https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...is-felt-around-the-world-20181109-p50ex3.html

Trains setting off on their own after the driver goes back to inspect a brake problem and fixes it have a long history.

 

[Clip]

Im guessing as this was in the remote outback that there will be no film ala Unstoppable?

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

https://www.onrsr.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/22475/Safety-Alert-RSA-2018-002-ECP-Braking.pdf
The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator(ONRSR) has issued a safety alert for all operators over Electronically Controlled Pneumatic(ECP) braking.

ECP braking systems that comply with the American Association of Railroads standard AAR S-4200 have a software feature designed to preserve battery life on the ECP fitted wagons by releasing the electronic
brakes on a train in circumstances where:

An electronic brake is applied by the ECP system

There is no communications between the ECP system on board the lead locomotive and the end of
train; and

Sixty minutes has elapsed from the last communication

 

[edwin_m]

Not sure why the ATP system is involved here (reading the full document in the link). Surely the main issue is the need to secure the train using a handbrake on the locomotive - or at the very least a mechanical brake valve - before going trackside?

 

[big all]

so theres no speed sensitive braking as in not in forward or reverse brakes apply above say 5mph
or cab to track signaling off any sort ??

 

[AndrewE]

Not sure why the ATP system is involved here (reading the full document in the link). Surely the main issue is the need to secure the train using a handbrake on the locomotive - or at the very least a mechanical brake valve - before going trackside?

I noticed that it said

After one hour, during the course of applying the handbrakes,

and I think somewhere I saw a reference to the fact that if enough brakes aren't pinned down the train can run away anyway. I assume the braked portion gets pushed and slides as the brakes come off the rest. I suspect "a handbrake on the loco" isn't going to do much with 38000T behind on a steep gradient...

 

[ac6000cw]

I noticed that it said and I think somewhere I saw a reference to the fact that if enough brakes aren't pinned down the train can run away anyway. I assume the braked portion gets pushed and slides as the brakes come off the rest. I suspect "a handbrake on the loco" isn't going to do much with 38000T behind on a steep gradient...

Yep... you would have to apply the handbrakes on a fair number of wagons to be sure of holding a train that heavy on a significant gradient, and with only one person to do it that could take quite a long time (the trains are driver-only).

 

[AndrewE]

Yep... you would have to apply the handbrakes on a fair number of wagons to be sure of holding a train that heavy on a significant gradient, and with only one person to do it that could take quite a long time (the trains are driver-only).

I wonder if it would be physically possible for one person to apply the hand brakes on enough wagons to hold the train before the rest release themselves automatically (after 60 minutes?)