BRENHAM, TEXAS -- The cause of July 28 train derailment was probably a single car that began rocking back and forth when it crossed a section of tracks that had sunk, Brenham officials say.
Public works director Doug Baker said he and other city officials met last Wednesday with representatives from Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) in a debriefing on the accident, which sent 24 cars flying off the tracks near the downtown area.
The derailment occurred shortly before 6 p.m. as the 64-car BNSF train was passing through the city.
There were no injuries, which local officials called miraculous.
Several cars slid to a stop only a few feet from the Brookshire Brothers supermarket and Ace Hardware store located near the tracks.
Baker said BNSF officials put the cause of the accident on a "low spot" along an area of tracks that triggered what is called "harmonic rocking" of one of the empty cars.
Another low spot further down the tracks "amplified this harmonic rocking," causing the car to sway even more until it flew off the rails, yanking other cars with it, Baker said BNSF officials told city personnel.
In extreme cases, the wheels will actually lift off the track as a rail car vibrates violently. Studies have shown the phenomenon usually occurs at speeds between 12-24 miles an hour.
Baker said BNSF officials have assured city officials the problem has been fixed.
"They said it was repaired," he said.
During the debriefing, there were some talks about the need for another railroad overpass, Baker added.
The derailment closed the only overpass when one of the cars fell from an overpass onto Martin Luther King Boulevard below.
All of the other railroad crossings are "grade-level."
"While we were talking, we did open the subject of the underpass for discussion. They (BNSF) were obviously noncommittal, but at least we talked about it," Baker said. "There wasn't any serious dialogue like, 'Yeah, let's work together on this.'"__
Baker said that two things that did come out of that discussion were that the city would "pretty much be dealing" with federal agencies on possible funding for a railroad overpass, and that "something like this takes a long time to get off the ground -- maybe as much as 10 years."
"So if we're going to do something like this, now is the time," he said.
BNSF officials also said that they expect railroad traffic to increase dramatically as the fuel prices continue to stay high.
"They said that the amount of freight shipped by rail is not going to do anything but increase," said Baker. "It's more economical to ship by rail, and you can get larger volumes moved.
"They feel that's part of the answer to the fuel crunch, and if it does happen, all you're going to see are more trains."
(The preceding article by Arthur Hahn was published August 23, 2008, by Brenham Banner Press.)
