r/TrainCrashes

Vf6 (poorly made EV) meets a train

On April 17th, 2011 at 6:55 AM, 15 Years Ago, BNSF 9159 with BNSF 6133, 132 Coal Cars and DPU BNSF 9226, going 23 MPH, rear-ended BNSF 9470 pulling a MOW BNSF Train in Red Oak, IA.

The Crash derailed both locomotives and 8 Flat Cars caring MOW Equipment, the last 3 derailed Flat Cars destroyed the cab of BNSF 9159 with 4 of them on top of the cab when the train came to a stop and also causing a fire in both locomotives.

Unfortunately, the two crew members in BNSF 9159 died when the collision occurred.

The cause of the collision was because The crew was half awake and half asleep while driving the train, missing a stop signal from the alerter alarm resetting every 2 minutes.

After the crash BNSF 9159 and 6133 were repaired and returned to service, still around today, however 9159 was renumbered 8749, The reason why, I'm not sure and this was one of the only times BNSF renumbered one of there locomotives after it's involvement in a wreck.

BNSF 9470 and 9226 were undamaged since they were far away from the accident, both returned to service and are also still around today.

A side note I want to point out is that, The Black Box Forward Facing Video Camera Footage from BNSF 9159 was destroyed in the crash and fire, which made railroads make sure the black box can survive crashes and won't get damaged.

This crash can also be known as The BNSF 9159 Incident. And it was completely preventable.

If there's anything about this incident that I forgot to mention or got wrong, please let me know.

Just so you know, This is a remake of a drawing and post from last year, this time with more information.

Also, pictures 1 and 2 are not the trains involved, Pictures 3 and 4 are the trains involved.

On April 15th, 2024 at 12:19 PM, CSX 3320 first picture pulling CSX M442 going West, passes CSX 975, second picture pulling CSX M209 going East at The Folkston Funnel.

1 Hour Later at 1:20 PM, CSX I032, third picture, with CSX 3299 and CSX 3469 with 12 Tropicana cars and 37 Intermodal cars, going 28 MPH going from Jacksonville, FL to Florence, SC, collides Head-on with stopped CSX L743, fourth picture, with CSX 245, CSX 7256 former 380 and CSX 5402 with 83 Rock cars going from Fitzgerald, GA to Jacksonville, FL.

I032 was going 38 MPH when it entered Folkston, GA and after going through a switch and L743 came into view, The Engineer threw the train into emergency braking, after that both crew members went out the back door and bailed from their locomotive while the train was going 28 MPH, only suffering minor injures but did survive. I'm not sure if the two crew members from L743 either jumped from their locomotive or stayed on the train when the collision occurred. Either way, The Conductor also had minor injuries, while The Engineer was uninjured. The Engineer of L743 made an emergency call to dispatch after the collision reporting what happened and checking on the I032 crew.

All 5 Locomotives, 3 Rock cars, 2 Tropicana cars and 2 Intermodal cars were damaged and CSX 7256, CSX 5402, 3 Rock cars from L743 and 2 Intermodal cars 19-7 and 20-8 from I032 derailed.

The force of the impact pushed L743s Locomotives back into the first 3 Rock Hoppers damaging the noise of CSX 5402, the crash also caused a small fire on the first 2 Tropicana cars, causing a grass fire to the right of the train and also burning the noise of CSX 3469.

After the crash, the Non-derailed Cars from both Trains were taken to Jacksonville, FL, while the 5 locomotives were moved down to a siding on April 16th between 1:50 and 2:20 AM so the NTSB could investigate into what had happened.

As for the cause of this collision, In short, CSX I032 went through a switch that was not aligned correctly due to a conductor who did not know how to operate it correctly and the area was under a signal suspension which disabled Positive Train Control and that's what all lead up to the head-on crash.

After the accident, I'm not sure what happened to the crew members of both Trains involved, hopefully their doing better now, I also don't know if the conductor who forgot to reset the switch was given any criminal punishment.

The derailed Rock cars were most likely scrapped while the damaged Tropicana and Intermodal cars were probably repaired.

As for the Locomotives, On April 21st at 7:23 AM, CSX 549 and CSX 5261 picked up CSX 5402, CSX 3299 and CSX 3469 to take them to Waycross, GA, On April 23rd at 8:24 PM, CSX 7256 was able to move on its own to Waycross, Later into the night, On April 24th at 12:10 AM, CSX 245 which was also able to move on its own to Waycross. After all the engines got to Waycross, they were all put on Flatbed cars and stayed out of service for like a year after accident, CSX 5402 and CSX 7256 have been repaired and are back in service. CSX 3469, CSX 3299 and CSX 245 were taken to Salem, IL. As of July 2025, CSX 3299 and CSX 3469 are at a locomotive shop in Mount Vernon, IL, still on Flatbed cars, whether they'll be repaired or retired, I'm not sure, As for CSX 245, As far as I know, it's being repaired and we have not seen it since April 2025, if anybody knows what's going on with those locomotives, please let me know.

If there's anything I forgot or said wrong about this incident, please let me know.

What does everyone think of these 4 drawings from The Forward Facing Video Cameras on the trains? If anybody knows where the videos from the trains are or if anybody has them, please let me know.

Amtrak 627 was pulling a Amtrak Palmetto Train.

41 People were injured and 2 MOW Workers died, both tested positive for Oxycontin and Cocaine, The Engineer also test positive for Marijuana.

The Train was going Westbound, had 4 CSX Locomotives and a Full Lineup of Freight Cars. The Lead Locomotive was CSX 3026, I don't know what the numbers of the other engines were, if anybody knows, please let me know.

On HW 174, US 17 on the right of the picture behind the trees, a witness in their car took video of the collision.

The Truck Driver was able to get the cab of the his truck away from the tracks before the train came, probably to try and get the Backhoe off the Flatbed, but ran out of time.

Neither the Truck Driver or the Crew on the Train were injured.

If I forgot anything about this incident please let me know.

What does everyone think of this drawing from this recent Train Crossing collision?

The worker jumped off the work equipment before the train hit it, The impact pushed the equipment back down the tracks the way it was going.

The Train didn't derail and the work equipment wasn't to badly damaged either.

I don't know the number of the Ferromex locomotive this is from or why the collision occurred, since the cause is still under investigation.

If anybody knows the number of the Ferromex engine or anything else about this incident, please let me know.