Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being
ignored by DHS.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/24/us/montana-train-derailment-yellowstone-river/index.html
A train derailment in Montana caused a bridge across the YellowstoneThere is no good substitute for good math skills and finite element
River to collapse and sent multiple cars into the water below,
officials in Stillwater County said Saturday.
The derailment occurred around 6 a.m. Multiple tanker cars were
damaged and are leaking “petroleum products,” according to Yellowstone County Disaster and Emergency Services.
The derailed Montana Rail Link train cars included “several hazmat
cars,” the regional rail company said in a statement.
The train crew is safe and no injuries have been reported, the
statement said.
“The safety of our employees and the public remains our top priority.
We are committed to addressing any potential impacts to the area as a
result of this incident and working to understand the reasons behind
the accident,” Montana Rail Link said.
Yellowstone County officials said there was no immediate threat and “precautions are being put in place.”
The cause of the derailment has not yet been determined and people are
being asked to keep away from the areas around the Yellowstone River
Rail Bridge.
“Local fishing accesses will be closed. Water treatment plants,
irrigation districts, and industrial companies are taking appropriate precautions,” the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Yellowstone County Disaster and Emergency Services has asked
people living in the area to conserve water.
Tammie Mullikin, a spokesperson with Stillwater County Disaster and
Emergency Services, said notifications have been made to all required agencies, and “safety and hazard mitigation efforts” have been implemented in response to the incident.
“We have formally established a unified command and are using the
incident command system,” Mullikin said. “Unified Command is working together to determine the most appropriate steps to ensure a safe
resolution to this incident.”
Gov. Greg Gianforte tweeted Saturday that he was monitoring the
derailment.
“The state is standing by to support as Montana Rail Link and county officials assess their needs,” he said.
Montana Rail Link is a Class II regional railroad that operates over
900 route miles of tracks across Montana and Idaho, according to the company’s website.
Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being ignored
by DHS.
On 6/24/23 8:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 16:50:19 -0600, Duke Mantee wrote:
Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being ignored
by DHS.
Or it could be caused by lax rail maintenance.
99.999% the sure reason.
I'd blame Pete, but some of this stuff is beyond
his power, or the power of his predecessors. There
is not enough money, manpower or will for regular
federal inspections of every stretch of track.
We built all this infrastructure in the 50s and
early 60s when the USA was overflowing with cash.
Now we can't maintain it - or do without it.
Rocks & hard places .....
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 16:50:19 -0600, Duke Mantee wrote:
Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being ignored
by DHS.
Or it could be caused by lax rail maintenance.
They do have to sacrifice safety in order to pay the billionaire owners
their billionaire salaries and bonuses. Ayn Rand got some things wrong
with her book, Atlas Shrugged. Her imaginary capitalist captains of
industry were better men than today's hedge fund managers.
We built all this infrastructure in the 50s and early 60s when the
USA was overflowing with cash.
Now we can't maintain it - or do without it. Rocks & hard places
.....
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 18:38:41 -0600, Duke Mantee wrote:
They do have to sacrifice safety in order to pay the billionaire owners
their billionaire salaries and bonuses. Ayn Rand got some things wrong
with her book, Atlas Shrugged. Her imaginary capitalist captains of
industry were better men than today's hedge fund managers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway
The only captains today take their playbook from Captain Kidd, not Hank Rearden.
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 20:24:37 -0400, 34J.935 wrote:
We built all this infrastructure in the 50s and early 60s when the
USA was overflowing with cash.
Now we can't maintain it - or do without it. Rocks & hard places
.....
You are optimistic.
https://railfan.com/critical-bnsf-bridge-in-north-idaho-closed/ https://bridgehunter.com/bridge/mt-broadwater-mrl-missouri-river-bridge
I can't find information on that particular bridge but many of them were built in the early 20th century with band-aids applied as needed.
BNSF built the new bridge at Sandpoint to provide an additional track, not
to replace the 1904 bridge which is being repaired.
https://www.bnsf.com/news-media/railtalk/heritage/sandpoint.html
The US built highway infrastructure in the '50s and 60s which, if
anything, led to the decline of the railroads. I briefly worked for the
Penn Central in the early '70s as it was swirling the drain. It was the largest bankruptcy until Enron. It was nationalized in 1973 (Conrail).
Both the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central were profitable in their day. By the '60s taking the train from Albany to NYC was an
adventure. The tracks were in poor shape so the speeds were reduced, and
in the winter there may or may not be heat in the carriages. The flagship run, the Empire State Express, from NYC to Buffalo was gone in '67.
The improvements in road networks, automobiles and planes kind of
doomed the PASSENGER aspect of railways. However they do remain the
most economical means of transporting bulk materials over longer
distances.
Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being ignored
by DHS.
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 16:50:19 -0600, Duke Mantee wrote:
Looks like it could be wartime sabotage by Russian or Chicomm agents
walking across from Canada or coming up from Mexico after being ignored
by DHS.
Or it could be caused by lax rail maintenance. It's a unique situation. In '87 Burlington Northern was having union and other problems. There are two rail corridors across Montana. The Great Northern's tracks along the north
of the state and the Northern Pacific's is in the south central area. In
1970 GN, NP, and two other companies merged into Burlington Northern. BN thought the GN tracks would handle its capacity so in '87 it leased the NP right of way to Montana Rail Link. It sounded like a good idea at the
time.
In '96 BN bought the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, becoming BNSF.
Berkshire Hathaway owns it now. BNSF has been aggressively increasing
their capacity.
Meanwhile MRL happily chugged along and was becoming a bottleneck. This January BNSF paid $2 billion to terminate the lease early and it was
approved in March. I'm suspicious MRL treated the leased track like a
rented mule. "It ain't our problem." They had a derailment in April that dumped several cars in the Clark Fork. Fortunately the only hazardous
cargo spilled was Coors beer, making the locals happy.
In the long run it may prove to be a local pain in the ass. One of the bottlenecks that could be eliminated is running westbound freight over the
GN route and eastbound over the NP and the now disused Homestake Pass
line. A remote possibility would be passenger service returning to
Missoula. The Amtrak Empire Builder runs on the GN line. Of course that
one derailed in '21 with 3 fatalities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Montana_train_derailment
Your points are well-taken. OTOH, there are "concerns" about the Russian
and Chinese "refugees" entering the U.S. from Mexico. Could Russian
agents be instructed to blow up U.S. railroad bridges as payback for the >attack on the Crimean bridge by the U.S. proxy government in Kiev?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rising-number-russian-chinese-nationals-us-southern-border-raises-security-concerns
Your points are well-taken. OTOH, there are "concerns" about the Russian
and Chinese "refugees" entering the U.S. from Mexico. Could Russian
agents be instructed to blow up U.S. railroad bridges as payback for the attack on the Crimean bridge by the U.S. proxy government in Kiev?
On Sun, 25 Jun 2023 10:10:04 -0600, Duke Mantee<hisler@nym.hush.com> wrote:
Your points are well-taken. OTOH, there are "concerns" about the Russian*laughs and points*
and Chinese "refugees" entering the U.S. from Mexico. Could Russian
agents be instructed to blow up U.S. railroad bridges as payback for the
attack on the Crimean bridge by the U.S. proxy government in Kiev?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rising-number-russian-chinese-nationals-us-southern-border-raises-security-concernsLie site.
We already have terrorists in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Palo_Verde,_Arizona_derailment
The US had no involvement in the bridge attack or any other attack for
the same reason it's unlikely PRC or Russia would attack within the US:
it would be hard to scrub the attack enough to leave no evidence, and
this would be an act of war which would invite a violent response by the
US and allies.
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 22:48:51 -0400, 34J.935 wrote:
The improvements in road networks, automobiles and planes kind of
doomed the PASSENGER aspect of railways. However they do remain the
most economical means of transporting bulk materials over longer
distances.
The coal trains that roll through here are a testament to that. I don't
see many pigs but that may be due to the arraignments between BNSF and
MRL. I don't know what percentage they hold nationwide.
https://www.bts.dot.gov/sites/bts.dot.gov/files/docs/FFF_2017.pdf
That has a lot of information. Figure 3.4 shows the intermodal volumes and seems to confirm my observation that BNSF uses the Hi-Line route. 2-1
shows almost ten times the tonnage moved by truck rather than rail in
2015.
The problem with rail is the freight gets there when it gets there which doesn't work well with JIT scheduling.
On Sun, 25 Jun 2023 19:55:01 -0700, Siri Cruise wrote:
We already have terrorists in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Palo_Verde,_Arizona_derailment
The US had no involvement in the bridge attack or any other attack for
the same reason it's unlikely PRC or Russia would attack within the US:
it would be hard to scrub the attack enough to leave no evidence, and
this would be an act of war which would invite a violent response by the
US and allies.
"The saboteurs were never identified."
The problem with rail is the freight gets there when it gets
there which
doesn't work well with JIT scheduling.
Um ... depends on the freight. Sometimes it doesn't matter
whether it gets there Monday or Tuesday. Amazon isn't much
different .....
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