Train Wreck.
The Leigh Creek Coal train was derailed over the weekend as it headed, fully-laden with coal, to the power station at Port Augusta.
I got a gig shooting some pictures for the Channel 9 News in Adelaide – a bit like old times, in a roundabout way.
The chaps crewing the train were pretty lucky. The derailment occurred behind the locomotives.
The three kilometre train was broken into three segments. The main damage involved 22 cars which were scattered and concertina-ed.
The train travels at about 80 kilometres an hour so when disaster strikes the combined weight of all the cars and coal is enormous.
The momentum would have been very hard to arrest, hence the incredible pile up.
I couldn’t resist a landscape photo – it puts the whole thing into perspective
Great photos Peter, Especially the last one with the landscape !
I flew over it on Wednesday, it was still in more or less the same state. It’ll take them a long time to clean it up, I reckon.
Quick video-grab of the fly by: http://www.twitvid.com/NJFV9
I love your pics. Did you do much to them in post? There’s something unrealistic about the edges on the details, but I can’t pick whether it’s an artefact of the photo or just because the entire landscape looks so spectacularly unrealistic in real life 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
There’s is a lot of resolution lost in the down-sizing for the web which does result in a loss of quality – in some more than others for some reason. However there is little done in post Mark, apart from when I might convert a picture to black and white or use a technique for an artistic effect which is pretty easy to see.
Mess. Would be interested to know cause. Broken rail… but after the locos passed over it? Nah. Broken axle or wheel failure? Probably.
That sure is flatland… reminds me of some areas here in the Western States.
Good nobody was injured.
~Andy
great photo shots.
Great photo’s as usual Peter.
I spent 4 years living in Leigh Creek so this brings it all back to me.
Spent many a happy hour or two taking pictures of the train.
Then laying in bed at night hearing the train go through during summer.
Cheers Dean