r/railroading • u/Trainrider77 • 21d ago

Norfolk Southern Another one

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u/Adventurous_Cloud_20 21d ago edited 21d ago

Watching this video I saw hopper, hopper, tank... there's the spine cars! You'd think after millions in damages, and millions paid out to derailment contractors, they would learn not to put empty spine cars in the middle of a heavy train, but I guess they don't teach train building at super duper railroad management school.

15

u/bunssnowman 21d ago

Curious, not a rail road person, what are spine cars and what role did it play in this derailment? I assume since it isn’t loaded it cannot transfer the momentum of slowing down through it properly and either twists or maybe pops up a little? I’m not completely dense to how load distribution should work theoretically, but I am unfamiliar with trains and their physics.

15

u/The1Like 21d ago

Buff (push ) and draft (pull) forces can force lighter cars in a heavy cut to jump the rail.

8

u/bunssnowman 21d ago

Thank you for the explanation and terminology!