Freight train stopped by signal malfunction after lightning strike, Chester MA
Road ClosureA freight train was stopped near Main St due to a signal malfunction caused by lightning. The severe thunderstorm caused signals to switch repeatedly, triggering the train's safety system and emergency braking. No crime or safety threat occurred, but operations were disrupted during the storm.
Audio|Source: CSX Railroad - Chester, Mile Post QB126
03:56
Transcript:
00:00
425, in emergency, (number withheld), track 1.
00:02
POMA.
00:04
All right, see.
00:05
Hey, Dave, uh, lightning strikes, uh, if you see it in the mountains come up to (number withheld), as soon as the lightning flash, the signal dumped in our face, uh, went red, and then it came green again.
00:19
We got a clear signal, but PTC ended up dumping us like we went through a red, and it's lightning pretty bad out here.
00:24
Yeah, I've been watching it.
00:26
It's sort of South West, though, where you are right now? Over.
00:30
Roger that, but yeah,
00:31
the signal, so it went red after the conductor was calling it as a clear here.
00:36
You know, I put the train into full service, came to a spot.
00:40
And, yeah,
00:41
it went clear before my head end passes, so he took it something, so don't, you know, they'll probably be calling you.
00:46
I'm trying to reset my air brake right now, as you see.
00:49
Alright, go ahead and then do the reset order.
00:52
Roger. We can physically see the aspect and then we'll be lightning hit, turn red, then it went back to green, and then it went to red, and then it went to red, and then it went to green, and it went to red, it was just back to green, it was a trip, and it was freaked out.
01:04
So severe thunderstorm, lightning,
01:07
and signal went back and forth on you.
01:11
Yeah, Roger.
01:12
And as, I mean, dude, as we were sitting, it's still against the railway.
01:15
Alright, like I said, I'm looking at it.
01:17
I don't know if you guys could just maybe clear (number withheld) and then wait, because if it starts raining pretty heavy there, you might not get some wheel flip, no.
01:28
Yeah,
01:29
the air is so we're on the rear, so we're at least here.
01:33
There is no precipitation as of now.
01:35
I would like permission to keep going, but now because of this whole signal thing,
01:39
might be on a restricting getting going up the mountain here, so maybe a tester stop for the interim might be good if I can make it to there.
01:48
Yeah, I mean, I'm keen to do whatever you think is best to make sure you got better signals in the block there, over? Yeah, Roger, it's been probably like 15 years since I've had to go through a rest of the red signal because of a weird thing like this.
02:07
How do you want me to proceed?
02:08
your suppression or just it dumped it? No, VTC dumped me after I already had it in suppression.
02:14
I wasn't going to, well, I knew it was because of lightning, so I wasn't going to dump the screen, you know, I want to keep its integrity in one piece.
02:19
But then it dumped me as I got, you know, within like 50 feet of a thing.
02:23
All right, so I'm about how fast radio?
02:25
23 miles an hour.
02:26
Sorry, so I probably should still do the restricted speed message for the next train.
02:30
I don't, I got air restoring on the rear as long as you think don't come apart when I start pulling it was well good.
Disclaimer:
This was transcribed by AI and may contain errors. Please verify the information independently.
Location mentioned:
Near W Main St, Chester, MA 01011
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