Steam locomotive crashed on US preserved (Strasburg) railroad

[the sniper]

It's alongside the North East corridor branch to Harrisburg, PA. As is not unusually for incidents in the States now, it was caught on a rail cam...

Quite something to be able to hear the live reaction from the footplate!

 

[StephenHunter]

Hope no-one was injured.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Sadly the yellow thing that looks like a jib of a crane does not line up with the buffer beam.

Smoke box door caved in but hopefully not reaching the tubes.

 

[the sniper]

Hope no-one was injured.

Hope so too.

There's side view here too... https://twitter.com/itstrainboy/status/1587855705272422407

 

[Peter Sarf]

Hope so too.

There's side view here too... https://twitter.com/itstrainboy/status/1587855705272422407

Oh dear. That is deeper than just a smoke box door.

From the first video it looks like the points were set incorrectly.

I suspect no real injuries UNLESS there were people in/near the JCB or equipment behind.

 

[the sniper]

Quite something to be able to hear the live reaction from the footplate!

I think this was actually a passenger on the adjacent train, going by the second video.

 

[DelW]

"Trains" magazine's report:

Strasburg collision damages No. 475, no one hurt - Trains

PARADISE, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road’s 4-8-0 steam engine No. 475 collided with a tracked excavator or “trackhoe” parked on a spur Wednesday morning, Nov. 2, punching a hole in the engine’s smokebox. No injuries resulted and the engine, running light, remained on the track. A combination of a...

www.trains.com

I was surprised when I visited (and rode on) the Strasburg line that it operates entirely without fixed signalling, even when more than one train is operating. It seems to rely on radios comms and line of sight driving. I think that's quite common on US short lines, but Strasburg is unusual in having quite intensive passenger services, as well as handling local freight.

 

[DelW]

475 is now back in service, presumably with a new smokebox door.

(Edit) Actually with a repaired smokebox door mounted on a new steel front plate:

Strasburg details 96-hour repair to engine No. 475 - Trains

STRASBURG, Pa. — Strasburg Rail Road’s ex-Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 steam engine No. 475 returned to excursion passenger duty this week after the company’s mechanical department worked overtime to repair smokebox damage from a Nov. 2 collision with a tracked excavator. The locomotive was back in...

www.trains.com

SRC mechanics replaced the smokebox front with three-quarter-inch-thick steel plate, using the damaged item as a template. The smokebox door – the hinged round center of the smokebox front – likewise broke into shards, and Zeigler said, “We elected to braze-weld that. We put a reinforcing steel ring inside to hold it together.”