Planes and Boats and Trains. Wrecks!

[John Thomas8]

More on Amelia Earhart:

[Suranis]

Been watching a few of these lately. Interesting stuff.

[John Thomas8]

[Volkonski]

3 trains involved in collision, derailment in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley: NTSB

https://6abc.com/train-derailment-norfo ... /14485779/

The derailment occurred in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, Norfolk Southern said.

There is "no threat to the public, no hazardous material concerns from the railcars, and no reports of injuries to our crew members," Norfolk Southern spokesperson Connor Spielmaker said in a statement to ABC.

Images from the Nancy Run Fire Company's Facebook page show a freight train derailed and off its tracks on Riverside Drive in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, on Saturday morning.

The train was hauling boxcars and tanker cars, the photos show. No injuries are being reported.

According to Norfolk Southern, a "small diesel fuel leak" at the derailment site has been contained with booms and will be vacuumed out. The company says such a leak is "common when locomotives are involved."

One car containing plastic pellets has spilled its contents onto the ground, which Northfolk Southern said will also be cleaned up. The derailment has led to nearby road closures.

Cleanup crews and contractors with Norfolk Southern will remain on scene over the coming days, Spielmaker said.

"We appreciate the quick, professional response by local emergency agencies," said Spielmaker. "Our crews and contractors will remain on-scene over the coming days to cleanup, and we appreciate the public's patience while they work as quickly, thoroughly, and as safely as possible. We are always working to advance safety. We will investigate this incident to understand how it happened and prevent others like it."

[RTH10260]

here is how the three trains got into the mess

The derailment was caused by an eastbound train that struck a stopped train on the same track just outside Bethlehem, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Wreckage from that crash spilled onto an adjacent rail, and a westbound train struck the wreckage.

in https://penncapital-star.com/transporta ... igh-river/

[John Thomas8]

Adrift for 14 months:

[raison de arizona]

NSFW language

[bill_g]

That's not gonna buff out.

[John Thomas8]

[MN-Skeptic]

Baltimore bridge collapses after large ship collision as officials announce lane closures and traffic detours

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning after it was struck by a large ship, according to video obtained by CNN.

All traffic is being detoured, said Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA), and It’s unclear if anyone was injured. CNN has reached out to the Baltimore City Fire Department for additional information.

The 1.6-mile, 4-lane bridge extends over the Patapsco River and serves as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore harbor and an essential link of Interstate-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.

Edited to add video -

[RTH10260]

The Guardian live reporting webpage:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/liv ... ey-updates

[bill_g]

Yeah. That's not gonna buff out.

[RTH10260]

The moments leading up to the collision, ship leaving berth, then seems to have totally have lost electric power

[Volkonski]

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltim ... index.html

[bill_g]

This was the best possible time of day for this tragic accident to happen. Imagine the losses during a daytime strike.

[Volkonski]

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimor ... e/60303975

Gov. Wes Moore said the crew on the ship notified authorities that they had lost power.
•Moore said between a mayday call and the collapse, officials stopped the flow of traffic so that more cars were not on the bridge, potentially saving lives.



Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul J. Wiedefeld confirmed there was a crew working on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

"At this time this is an active search and rescue mission. We know there were individuals on the bridge at the time of the collapse working on the bridge, contractors for us," Wiedefeld said.

[Volkonski]

Baltimore Port: What impact will bridge collapse have on shipping?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltim ... 024-03-26/

It is the deepest harbor in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, closer to the Midwest than other East Coast ports, with five public and 12 private terminals, according to Maryland government website.

It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert Lars Jensen.

The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2 million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.



It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.
The port handles imports and exports for major automakers including Nissan (7201.T), opens new tab, Toyota (7203.T), opens new tab, General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, Volvo Car (VOLCARb.ST), opens new tab, Jaguar Land Rover (TAMOJL.UL) and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), opens new tab, including luxury models for Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.

It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.

[RTH10260]

Update by "What is going on with shipping"

[Sam the Centipede]

That's nasty! And one of those situations where the skipper and officers have very little time to work out what to do, awful.

Off Topic

When designing fixed offshore oil & gas platforms a "push-over" analysis is sometimes required. The platform will be designed to withstand an accidental impact by a supply boat of several thousand (say 2,000 to 5,000) tonnes, possibly with some minor damage, but certainly without collapsing. The scenario is something like a supply boat approaches, perhaps in bad weather, and loses steering so smacks the platform substructure instead of stopping or mooring gracefully in the required location.

The push-over analysis is for a different scenario. It envisages something like an oil tanker or a bulk carrier losing steerage in bad weather, drifting out of control, and impacting the platform. A large vessel should not normally be close to a platform; this is an accident case. The platform crew would expect to have early warning from radars, coastguard and AIS that they might be in peril and should consider evacuation. Their safety is not the issue being examined. The platform cannot withstand an impact from (say) 150,000 tonnes dead weight, it will inevitably tumble, just as the bridge did. So why the the push-over analysis? Its main purpose for an oil & gas platform is to confirm that during and following the inevitable collapse, the subsea valves and equipment will survive, so there won't be a huge pollution incident.

And if the platform could survive a 150,000 tonne impact? Then one envisages a 200,000 tonne or larger impact, whatever will actually push over the platform!

Anyway, the larger point is that, as the video shows, smack any structure with the dead weight of a huge drifting vessel and there are no good outcomes for the structure.

[northland10]

The loss of the bridge will mess up traffic for a long while but there are still options around it until it is replaced. The bigger, more immediate issue is they have a large bridge sitting in the water (or on a ship) at the single entrance to a great deal of terminals for all sorts of things.

They must balance the need to get shipping moving with the NTSB's need to investigate fully, which involves more than just what went wrong with the ship but also whether there were issues with the infrastructure that caused the collision and collapse to possibly be worsened. They will likely look at details that may not have been able to stop a huge ship from hitting it but if the damage could have been reduced. They will also look at the response and comment on whether it was good or needed improvement, even simple ones.

I am glad I am not in a position of responsibility for that mess.

[Volkonski]

Logistics companies scramble after bridge collapse closes Port of Baltimore until further notice

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/26/logisti ... imore.html

Logistics companies up and down the East Coast were urgently relaying messages back and forth to clients Tuesday on the status of their imports and exports, after the Port of Baltimore was shut down in response to the collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. A massive rescue effort was underway Tuesday morning.

“Our first priority is engaging clients to make plans for containers that were originally routed to Baltimore that will be discharged at other ports on the Eastern Seaboard,” explained Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal for ITS Logistics.

“These diverted volumes will impact the ports of New York/New Jersey, Norfolk and the Southeast and we have to prepare trucking and transload capacity to get that freight to its intended network,” Brashier said.

The 10,000 container-capacity vessel Dali was on its way out of the Port of Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday morning, heading to Colombo, Sri Lanka when it collided with a bridge pillar. At the time of the collision, the vessel had two pilots from the Port of Baltimore taking it out of port.

“The immediate impact is with the cargo on board and its accessibility. Other planned shipments through Baltimore will likely be rerouted, potentially increasing cargo flow to New York, Norfolk, and nearby ports,” said Goetz Alebrand, senior vice president and head of ocean freight for the Americas at DHL Global Forwarding. “Bulk and car carriers reliant on Baltimore must assess operations in the event of a prolonged closure.”

More than 52 million tons of foreign cargo, worth some $80 billion were transported out of the port last year, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D). The eleventh largest port in the nation, Baltimore served an average of 207 calls a month last year, according to the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.

The Port of Baltimore is the top American port for the import and export of autos and light trucks, as well as wheeled farm vehicles and construction machinery. Last year, the port handled 847,158 cars and light trucks, according to data from the port.

2023 was the thirteenth consecutive year that Baltimore led American ports in the import of cars and light trucks. Other top imports include sugar and gypsum.

Breaking out the trade, $23 billion of the port’s total $55.2 billion of imports in 2023 were autos and light trucks. Around $4.8 billion of the port’s exports were motor vehicles.

“As Baltimore is primarily a roll-on/roll-off port, this disruption should create possible flatbed volumes out of other ports on the East Coast,” said D’Andrae Larry, head of Uber Freight.

The loss of the Port of Baltimore will not have much effect on containerized cargos since several larger east coast ports handle those. It will have a much greater effect on roll-on/roll-off cargos including cars and light trucks.

[chancery]

It's apparently SOP to have a work party ready at the bow to drop anchors in case of engine failure. I've read that the Dali did this, and fact was able to drop one anchor, although evidently not in time to avert the collision. Looking at the tangle of bridge structure draped over the bow, I wonder if any crew members were hurt or killed.

[Volkonski]

It's apparently SOP to have a work party ready at the bow to drop anchors in case of engine failure. I've read that the Dali did this, and fact was able to drop one anchor, although evidently not in time to avert the collision. Looking at the tangle of bridge structure draped over the bow, I wonder if any crew members were hurt or killed.

All 22 crew members were unharmed.

[bill_g]

On the plus side we can all become internet metalurgy and nautical navigation experts! I'm already wondering what the MAGA equivalent to ivermectin will be for this. Is it too early to start the countdown clock for the GQP refusal to give aid the MD?

[bill_g]

Leave it to MTG to find a conspiracy in everything.