I'm sure everyone has seen the derailment, subsequent intentional fire, and environmental impact in East Palestine, Ohio.
What I am surprised (not surprised?) is the lack of media coverage and attention from the government. Yes, it has been on the news. Yes, some in Congress have gone to the scene. Yes, Flashbang has mentioned it in his addled ramblings.
A train full of chemicals is intentionally burned in a populated place, toxic crap is sent flying everywhere, wildlife dying, people getting sick, and comparative crickets. Where are all the greenies in the media who keep telling us to drive electric cars and eat bugs because we need to heal the environment? They must have also missed out on the Nordstream pipeline spewing tons of natural gas into the sea. Anybody seen Greta?
But compare this to other happenings. Did y'all know Rihanna is pregnant again? And famous people are arguing over it online? Now, that s*** is important.
Anyway...
Here is an interesting website germane to the train incident. It provides access to the US rail system's defect detector system. There is a one of these about every 20 miles on most track. You can look up one near you and click on it. As trains pass over, they count cars, count axles, etc. One important thing they do is take temperature reading of the wheels and axels. Things get hot when bearings seize up. Once the train passes, all the information is sent via RF signal to the conductor. It allows them to take action if there is a problem.
http://database.defectdetector.net/
Here is a picture of the train in question before it derailed miles up the line:
![[Image: maxresdefault.jpg]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J5rhdOTcVs0/maxresdefault.jpg)
While I am not a train engineer, that sure looks like there is a problem. Remember when I said the detector system sends data via RF signals? Well, those RF signals can be heard on scanner radios. If you have a scanner, just tune it into the frequency for your local detector and you can hear what is going on. More to follow on this...
That section of track is very busy. Some reports say up to 30-40 different trains per every 24 hours. I looked for data on the various Ohio rail data websites but there seems to be a lot of them currently off-line or experiencing data errors. All traffic was rerouted. This is costly and adds stress elsewhere in the system.
https://railfan.com/ns-tries-to-get-back...ohio-main/
The cars in question were not labeled hazardous nor handled as hazardous. Yet, officials provided only two options for handling the emergency: let it be and hope it doesn't explode or do a release burn. I have yet to have it explained to me how either option would prevent toxic crap from getting everywhere. Of course with the burn, getting the tracks open again would be quicker than fixing a giant crater. I wonder if that lost revenue played any part in the decision?
https://www.govexec.com/management/2023/...us/382970/
Here is some good S2 coverage of the incident starting at 25:30
What I am surprised (not surprised?) is the lack of media coverage and attention from the government. Yes, it has been on the news. Yes, some in Congress have gone to the scene. Yes, Flashbang has mentioned it in his addled ramblings.
A train full of chemicals is intentionally burned in a populated place, toxic crap is sent flying everywhere, wildlife dying, people getting sick, and comparative crickets. Where are all the greenies in the media who keep telling us to drive electric cars and eat bugs because we need to heal the environment? They must have also missed out on the Nordstream pipeline spewing tons of natural gas into the sea. Anybody seen Greta?
But compare this to other happenings. Did y'all know Rihanna is pregnant again? And famous people are arguing over it online? Now, that s*** is important.
Anyway...
Here is an interesting website germane to the train incident. It provides access to the US rail system's defect detector system. There is a one of these about every 20 miles on most track. You can look up one near you and click on it. As trains pass over, they count cars, count axles, etc. One important thing they do is take temperature reading of the wheels and axels. Things get hot when bearings seize up. Once the train passes, all the information is sent via RF signal to the conductor. It allows them to take action if there is a problem.
http://database.defectdetector.net/
Here is a picture of the train in question before it derailed miles up the line:
While I am not a train engineer, that sure looks like there is a problem. Remember when I said the detector system sends data via RF signals? Well, those RF signals can be heard on scanner radios. If you have a scanner, just tune it into the frequency for your local detector and you can hear what is going on. More to follow on this...
That section of track is very busy. Some reports say up to 30-40 different trains per every 24 hours. I looked for data on the various Ohio rail data websites but there seems to be a lot of them currently off-line or experiencing data errors. All traffic was rerouted. This is costly and adds stress elsewhere in the system.
https://railfan.com/ns-tries-to-get-back...ohio-main/
The cars in question were not labeled hazardous nor handled as hazardous. Yet, officials provided only two options for handling the emergency: let it be and hope it doesn't explode or do a release burn. I have yet to have it explained to me how either option would prevent toxic crap from getting everywhere. Of course with the burn, getting the tracks open again would be quicker than fixing a giant crater. I wonder if that lost revenue played any part in the decision?
https://www.govexec.com/management/2023/...us/382970/
Here is some good S2 coverage of the incident starting at 25:30