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mtnlife991 t1_j8r5dym wrote

Reply to comment by Mtts28 in Railroad Giant To Skip Town Hall On Train Disaster, Citing 'Physical Threats' by hahahoudini

This was not caused by a broken axle. The NTSB determined a "wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure" was the cause of the derailment. A very preventable issue with regular maintenance and inspection.

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Mtts28 t1_j8rknom wrote

Axle is an easier way of dumbing that down for people. My point remains. The rules which Ben posted still do not pertain to wheel bearings. Wheel bearings do fail at random times even with maintenance. We struggle with this in the rail industry and truck industry. It’s why you also see so many truck fires. It’s a cheap component prone to failure. I have seen ones with less than 5000 mi on them blow apart in wheels. It’s literally nothing new. Additionally I have not seen any reports yet that this train threw any hot boxes along the line so it likely happened at a rapid pace.

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8szo7y wrote

There's a video of it on fire in Salem, 20miles before the crash. There also seems to be a call made about the hot box, and an investigation is underway. If you're genuinely interested, you should google, there are a handful of media outlets covering this part of the story. I think I saw the hot box footage on a CBS report.

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Mtts28 t1_j8t8isj wrote

The media is covering it now? Only took 2 weeks. I gave up trying to find anything.

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