Disaster in Heartland: Multiple Confirmed Dead After Montana Amtrak Derailment

WesternJournal ^ | September 26, 2021 | Jack Davis

[FryingPan101]

An Amtrak train derailment in northern Montana has left at least three dead and 50 injured.

Amtrak said its Empire Builder train went off the tracks at about 4 p.m. Saturday near Joplin, Montana, according to the Billings Gazette.

The Chicago-to-Seattle train of 10 cars and two locomotives had 141 passengers and 16 crew members on board.

[revetment]

Now might be a good time to double down on copper futures...

[indthkr]

"I suspect a maintenance problem with Amtrak's Superliner equipment."

Based on the photos, it looks like the train may have "picked the switch" at speed.

So could be bad equipment, track, or excess speed (human error)

[Vigilanteman]

I used to drive taxicab in Moorhead back in the day. There were three cab companies in the cities-- Checker, which mostly covered Fargo, City Cab, which mostly covered Moorhead and Doyle, which covered either.

They were all owned by the same guy even through the phone prefixes made you believe you were dialing Moorhead (City), downtown (Doyle) or Fargo's west side (Checker), they all went to the same dispatch office on the west side.

The downtown location closed sometime in the 1960s and was used as a parking garage during the day when the cabs were out and storage in the evening when there weren't enough customers. I worked 1976-77.