Arminto BNSF Wreck, Arminto, WY

Arminto, WY 12-9-2001

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Following excerpt was taken from the Billings Gazette online. - ARMINTO 12/7/2001 – A Burlington Northern and Santa Fe engineer was killed when his train struck an idle train about 60 miles west of Casper. The conductor sustained some cuts in the crash Friday night but was otherwise unhurt, according to Gus Melonas, a BNSF spokesman in Seattle. Three locomotives and the first six cars derailed from the moving train, which was hauling plastic from Fort Worth, Texas, to Laurel, Mont. A seventh car partially derailed. No one was aboard the idle train when the collision derailed its two lead locomotives. The grain filled train was bound from Longview Junction, Wash., to Omaha, Neb. The engineer killed was Mike Hoover, 48, a 29 year BNSF employee. Hoover and the conductor, whose identity was not available, were based out of Casper. The train had no other crew. Melonas said Saturday morning that the train was moving at 47 mph when the head-on collision occurred at 6:25 p.m. “It appears the train went into an emergency brake application before contact was made,” he said. Railroad officials were investigating the crash. BNSF wrecking and rerailing equipment were on the crash site and the track was expected to reopen at 6 p.m. Authorities late Friday shut down traffic at Waltman, a hamlet about 1l miles west of Powder River. The Wyoming Highway Patrol was allowing only emergency personnel to the crash site. -Photo courtesy of Doug Duncan. (who is not affiliated with the newspaper.)

Other info on the crash. The standing train was tied down and had been sitting in the siding for a couple of days. The ill-fated train approached under the max speed of 49 for dark (unsignalled) territory, as soon as the crew discerned that the switch was lined against them by observation of the switch stand target, they threw it into emergency, and laid down on the cab floor.

Before they moved stuff around the ATSF 681 was left sitting on top of the frame of SD40-2 BNSF 7938. Looked almost as if a crane had just set it up on top of the SD40 frame. The 7938 was the lead unit on the parked grain empty.

The lead unit BNSF C44 4882 climbed up on the BNSF 7938 and probably pretty much cleaned the SD40 to the frame then fell off onto its right side just beyond the 7938. The 4882 was lying on its side before these pictures were taken. The ATSF 681 must have followed the 4882 up onto the 7938's frame where it came to rest as if riding on a 6 axle flatcar. The 7829 was the 3rd unit of the freight train. The impact shoved the entire 105 car empty grain train backwards and several rear end cars out through the west switch onto the main line.

Consist: Westbound (moving Train) BNSF 4882, ATSF 681, BNSF 7829. Consist in siding BNSF 7938, BNSF 6329.

Latest Update from Altamont News 12-29-2001

NTSB probes fatal BNSF train collision

A fatal train crash near Arminto, WY in western Natrona County earlier this month happened after a westbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe train was switched from a main track onto an occupied side track, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The engineer, Mike Hoover, was killed when the train struck the rear of an idled, empty train the night of Dec07. a conductor was slightly hurt.

Natrona County sheriff's investigators said in a report that a switch diverting traffic to the side track had been secured with a padlock. Work boot footprints of an unknown person were found in crusty snow around the switching mechanism. Photographs of the footprints were given to the NTSB and BNSF officials.

According to Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the NTSB in Washington, D.C., the accident happened at 18:18 about 60 miles west of Casper, WY. The train was going 47 mile per hour in a 49 mph zone. The switch was manual and marked with a reflective sign. The weather was clear, cold and dark. Damage was estimated at $72,000 to the tracks and $3.1 million to the locomotives and rail cars belonging to BNSF, Lopatkiewicz.

Bill Walpert, general secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said the union will not comment on the train wreck because it is a party to the investigation. "We do have concerns about dark territory," he said. "In dark territory, there's no way to indicate whether there's been switch tampering."

According to the NTSB, about half of the railroad tracks in the United States are controlled by signal systems in which the train location is determined by track circuits. Those tracks carry more than 80 of all rail traffic in the U.S. The other half of the nation's track is "dark territory." -THE BILLINGS GAZETTE, Larry W. Grant

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