About 4:15 a.m., on January 16, 1977, 1 locomotive unit and 12 cars of Amtrak train No. 315 derailed on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company's track near New Castle, Alabama. Seventy-six of the 129 persons on board the train were injured. Property and equipment damage was estimated to be $578,000. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the tipping of the east rail which caused the track gage to widen. The gage widened because the track structure was not able to withstand the lateral forces generated by oscillations of the locomotive trucks as the train moved around a 5 degree curve. The oscillations were generated by variations in track alignment and superelevation that complied with Federal Track Safety Standards for Class 3 track and by the ineffectiveness of a vertical snubbing device on the second locomotive unit.
Railroad Accident Report - Nashville Railroad, New Castle, Alabama, January 16, 1977
1977
19 pages
Report
No indication
English
Railroad Transportation , Transportation Safety , Railroad trains , Accidents , Accident investigations , Railroad cars , Locomotives , Railroad tracks , Alignment , Failure , Loads(Forces) , Oscillations , Injuries , Damage , Alabama , Railroad accidents , New Castle(Alabama) , Railroad derailments
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