Reading Line Runaway!

So a few days ago there was a runaway incident on the NS Reading Line.  If you had seen some of my previous photo sets on my other blog, this line had recently been converted from Rule 251  ABS to Rule 261 CTC so I have some photo coverage of the area in question.  The incident involved a tank car with 75 tones of paraffin, rolling out of an industrial siding and onto the main line, following the descending grade eastward into the Lehigh Valley.  At CP-BURN the runaway car was routed, either intentionally or by happenstance, onto the former LVRR routing towards Bethlehem, where it eventually slowed down enough in the Bethlehem yard area for an employee to mount it and apply the handbrake.

Diverging route at CP-BURN

The most amazing thing is that there is actually a video of the runaway car taken from the overpass at BETHLEHEM where an astute railfan was able to position himself based on radio traffic.  What caught my attention was that the dispatcher actually had lined a route through the interlocking plant and displayed a Clear signal indication to the wayward tank car!  (I guess because it can shunt the track circuit it didn't count as a track car ;-) ) It's also worth noting that the single car had no issues shunting the track circuit and dropping the signal.



The important take away is that despite the billions in investment, this situation was not PTC preventable as the runaway car has no operable brakes no any sort of digital electronic anything.  Good old track circuits and CTC gave the dispatcher the tools to detect the runaway and route it onto a safer route with no high traffic grade crossings, and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 provided the grab irons for an employee to grab a hold of to then work the hand brake.