Mississippi River Barge & Trade Collide…SERIOUSLY, A Train Hit a Boat!
What’s Going on With Shipping?
September 17, 2022
In this episode, Sal Mercogliano – maritime historian at Campbell University and former merchant mariner – discusses the release of the National Transportation Safety Board report on the Collision between Baxter Southern Tow and BNSF Coal Train on November 13, 2021.
#supplychain #mississippi #train #derailment #collision
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Mississippi River Barge and Freight Train Collide: NTSB Report
https://gcaptain.com/mississippi-river-barge-and-freight-train-collide-ntsb-report/
NTSB – Collision between Baxter Southern Tow and BNSF Coal Train
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2222.pdf
source
Looks all planned.
Where are you getting this name of pine bend from it happened on River scenic road a little way south of a little town called Mount Rose Iowa
, I've seen these barges but so far inland that they knocked the trees down
Making money is an action. Keeping money is behavior. Growing money is knowledge.
The 54'-298' barges also happen to be tank barges as well. I have never seen a standard 25'-175' tank barges, but I am sure they existed at one point in time. As an unlimited mate with about 120 days on that upgrade, I probably would have mistaken that spot for a fleeting space as well, only starting to click around the screen after a half an hour once I got bored.
A mate on an inland towing vessel is usually the highest deck position.
The locomotive crew obsevered the special flashing light and guessed that it was a lot further away due to the angle of tow and some of the tank barges have designated running light positioning areas that are made to obscure a running light if you are not supposed to see it. So they could not see the reflecting light in the lense that the port light would be emitting to indicate at a distance if it was working. From seeing the reflection the port running light the train crew could have guessed the angle and distance to the tow. Even that wouldn't have helped them either because the aforementioned running light positioning areas are mounted at least twenty-five feet off bow of the barge to begin with.
Long story short the boat shouldn't have hit the hill in that spot with empties on the head.
Well I don’t know about west river system boats, but on the great lakes we definitely do still have charts. Even for the rivers.
I had a captain who was pissed he had to learn the new ECDIS layout after having used Rosepoint for much of his career. Is it that much better?
Making money is an action. Keeping money is behavior. Growing money is knowledge…
We warned that barge to stay off the tracks, but no!
Let me say first off, please let me say that the Baxter Southern is a Towboat, of course now they call it a Push Boat, having worked on the Mississippi River it will always be a towboat, anyway I grew up in Keokuk and I know how pool 19 can be when the winds are gusting, that pool is wide especially when you make your turn up around Nauvoo Point, it is 3 miles wide. That pool when the winds re out of the east or south-southeast can make pool 19 like the great lakes, it can make some serious white caps. When you have empty barges, be it hooper barges or tank barges, they are a steel bed sheet. That spot at Galland, which is just below where Hendricks River Logistics is located, the coal terminal was never a good spot to want to shove into the bank, and above all wind gusting or not, the mate should have been watching to make sure that the rake of the barge did not extend up on the track. From the eye level in the pilot house, you cannot assume that the rake of that barge is clear of the tracks. That was a mistake, and in that case looking at the charts really means squat, in this case it is a visual situation. This has been a problem all along the upper Mississippi where tracks run along the river and in some cases double tracks at that. I can recall the railroads complaining that the wheel wash from the towboat was causing bank erosion, but if they realized when you are making a crossing or if the channel runs on that side of the bank, towboats have to keep a certain amount of head way, especially if the winds are gusting and you have empties, you have to drive and keep the head into the wind as best as possible. On Thursday, November 16, 1950, the Mark Twain Zephyr having departed the Keokuk Depot heading for Ft Madison was coming around the curve and was derailed when it struck the rake knuckle of the empty tank barge in tow of the towboat Delta Cities, of Lake tankers Corporation. So certainly not the first rodeo where this has happened. The Price of Good Navigation is Constant Vigilance.
Regardless, even if the towboat capt read the map notes properly, it behooved him to send a couple of deckhands to the bow to see things before docking. Reminds me of that Pres. Reagan line, "Trust but verify." I know this is hindsight but looking at the physical situation always trumps whatever the map shows. Of course, it was their bad luck with timing. Good analysis, and thanks!
I heard of a submarine sinking a train, but this is the first time I heard of a train hitting a barge.
I really like all your videos about transport difficulties in our Port of Los Angeles
And in other sea and river transport systems in the USA.
The tug with 4 barges had more staff than the train with 140 cars. Something wrong with that!
Could you imagine being a dispatcher at BNSF and getting that incoming message. How do you hit a boat? You're in a train! HOW DID YOU HIT A BOAT?
AS A RETIRED RAILROAD GUY , THIS IS A CLASSIC NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE TYPE SITUATION!
RIVER BARGING IS SOMETHING THAT FEW RAILROADERS HAVE A CONNECTION WITH AND VICE VERSA!THERE IS A RAILROAD SAYING” EVERY SAFETY RULE IS WRITTEN IN BLOOD!”
BUT A NEW RULE CAN BE WRITTEN RELATIVE TO WHAT EVER THE SHORTCOMINGS ON BOTH THE MARINE AND RR INDUSTRIES!
R/R's problem. Tracks too close to the water.
There appears to be no flashing strobe on the distant bow. Why are flashing strobes not in use?
the magnitude of the ineptitude necessary to hit a train with a barge is just flabbergasting, monumental.
looks like a terrible mistake and poor timing , it is easy to make an error at night
Great video – my wife and I once stayed in Fort Madison (just upstream from the accident), at the Kingsley Inn. Great location for railfanning (which I do) and for the river traffic and the double-deck swing bridge!. A time before that, we stayed at Trempealeau, Wisconsin – close by Lock and Dam No.6 and the BNSF railroad. We watched a big upbound (to Winona, I think) tug and barge set traverse the lock – the barges were too big (6 or 8 long x 2 wide) to pass in one go, so the captain split the load and did 2 passes, eventually recombining the load upstream of the lock. To me it seemed somewhat inefficient and I had a discussion with the lock master about this point, especially for bulk loads like wheat or coal or oil. Whilst in discussion, several BNSF unit trains passed by, which I said proved my point!!
Why the hell would they have the tracks so close to where the barges travel? Totally nuts!
I think a boat hit a train…
Trains are confined to the tracks on which they travel. It's not like the train could have swerved to miss the barge.
Even after you told me there was an exclamation point there, I couldn’t see it. You would think they’d have a better way of indicating an issue than a low contrast small character.
So the train finally meets it's match.
First I am glad that no one was seriously injured in this unfortunate accident. That said I remember seeing this story when it happened and thought how could it of happened and then I saw the pictures of the collision and subsequent derailment. While it is easy to point the blame at the Captain of the Tug and the Pilot of the Tug for missing this chart notation in the middle of the night while the bridge of the Tug is rigged for nighttime operations. Myself I think the owner of the Railroad tracks and right of way share at least equal if not more blame for this avoidable incident and here are my reasons why. 1) If the bank is eroded to the point that a locomotive engine or the cars of train are basically even with the current location of the river bank when passing by then something needs to be done to restore the bank of the river to prevent that from happening. 2) If the bank of the river has eroded that close to the railroad tracks what is to say the next storm could of possibly eroded the river banks some more and undermined the stability of the railroad tracks bed resulting in a high speed derailment resulting in serious injuries or death to the Engineer and or Conductor of the train and if those tracks are used for passenger trains then the possibility of a derailment could/would could resulted in injuries or deaths to passengers as well. 3) If the bank of a river is eroded to the point that a warning needed to be put on the charts then it would not be an unreasonable expectation that a warning devices (aides to navigation) be placed an appropriate distance from the shore line to warn river traffic from using that area to tie up/nudge against that section of bank because of the hazards to themselves and the railroad traffic. Lastly if the bank is eroded that close to the railroad tracks there is a high probability of debris of some form or another getting blown/washed onto the tracks that could be incredibly hard if not impossible to see at night or in times of poor visibility which could cause a derailment or otherwise damage the train. I bring up all of these points because historically railroads do not maintain or repair tracks unless the have to which is normally because of an incident that could of been prevented but they don’t because old regulations created in the 1800’s.
taco's….
How is this not the train company's fault? How were they allowed to bed the track so close to the river? Knowing the river floods. Don't get it. The track should have been moved farther away from the river a long time ago…
Murphy's Law right there! Perfect storm, even. Probably never happened before and may never happen again, but human nature needs to blame someone.
Between Montrose and Keokuk, the Mississippi is in a fairly narrow gorge, so in many places the tracks are right by the river. The other track you see is for unloading coal at the Hendricks River Logistics terminal. The Mississippi River Road was closed for a few days until wreckage could be cleared. I viewed the wreck from the other side of the river with large binoculars.
Why was the train track so close to the water? Why was the barged parked so close??
Tow boat not tug boat.
Tug boat work on harbors moving ships around. Towboats push barges.
BUILD BACK BETTER AT ITS BEST FJB !
Sharing to everyone of Jesus Christ, He is coming back. We are spiritually saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
I feel like it's a lot easier to move a train track further inland than to expect folks sailing on the nearby water to avoid the train. If it was so dark there, surely they could move the track inland by a few hundred feet or more. There are obvious improvements that could be made to keep lives from being endangered but, seeing as how this is a capitalist country, lives are risked and even sacrificed for the goal of maximizing profit, as if there wouldn't be profit if one did the right thing. It just baffles me.
Only can happen in Missouri on the Mississippi river !!!!!! People now do you understand why we have to REGULATIONS and safety.
Of ocurse NEITHER the BNSF or the barge companies will ever address the erosion issue at places where the river and rail run close to each other .
If the captain had known that ships had stopped in this spot before, then he also knew how close the tracks were to the water
I'm a towboat captain with 20 years experience. However, I've only transited that area a couple of times. So there are probably factors I'm not seeing. But, Looking at the mark the rake left, in the bank, and the pics from the train engine, it looks like the pilot was being overzealous with throttle and rudder. He had his stern further out than I would've.
Anyone who drives any kind of road vehicle, doesn't matter what it is or how heavy or big you think you are – we constantly hear and believe "Don't get in a fight with a train, the train will always win." I guess this incident just goes to show, there's always a bigger fish.
Bargs have a mind of their own in any weather; loaded or empty. A few years ago a tow heading south (still in St. paul, MN.) hit the Union Pacific's Hoffman Swing Bridge which allows the U.P. to transit the river between their South St. Paul yard and the Hoffman Ave yard in St. Paul, MN. a handful of years ago.
I would suggest make that exclamation point a flashing red blinking light that can be seen when the screen is in "night mode".
First off, I was raised on the Upper Mississippi River, literally, as a son of a lock master, at lock and dam #6,.and it's not a "tug" it's a TOW, also there are no "ships" on the river, sorry for nitpicking, just hear that alot. One other incident similar to this but far deadlier was the wreak of Amtrak's Sunset Limited in Louisiana. The Tow Mauvilla got lost in the bayou and struck a swing bridge on a main line, nudging the bridge offline slightly, shortly the Sunset Limited approached at 70 mph, striking the off line bridge sending train engines and cars filled with people into the swamp. Many of the cars were onfire and many fatalities, they made a documentary of this by the NTSB, horiric! During my time living on the dam as my dad worked the lock, I saw many Tows get crosswise in the river due to high winds and current commonly encountered on the Upper Mississippi.
Could you talk any faster? I can still understand you by slowing playback to half speed. Maybe if you switched to meth instead of coffee? You can do it!
The USS Barb Submarine sunk a Japanese running train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKklyvxw8QU
Trains have been crewed by two people for decades now.
Poor design of the chart. The ! Should be much larger and the warning should pop up when rolled over, not require a click.
If you're familiar with history, a submarine once sunk a train on land.
The interesting thing is, two people missed the safety update, if only one you could claim they were not paying attention and be happy that the blame had been correctly applied regardless, but two people who had experience of the system, even if not extensive, would imply some form of system failure, not making the warning obvious was that failure. It was human error but if you don't find out why the error was created then blaming the humans is a simplistic cop out and sets the stage for a repeat.