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Post by raymond on Jul 5, 2014 23:49:46 GMT 12
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 6, 2014 14:49:47 GMT 12
from The Seattle Times....Derailment spills Boeing fuselagesA train derailment in Montana ended with several
Boeing airplane fuselages and other equipment
bound for Renton sliding into a river on Thursday.By COLLEEN WRIGHT - Seattle Times staff reporter | 9:30AM PDT - Saturday, July 05, 2014 BOEING investigators were dispatched to a train derailment in Montana that ended with Boeing airplane fuselages and other equipment sliding into a river on Thursday.
Boeing spokesman Larry Wilson said in a statement that a BNSF Railway train carrying six 737 fuselages and assemblies for 777 and 747 planes derailed near Rivulet, about 18 miles east of Superior, Montana.
Photos taken by rafters on the Clark Fork River showed at least three fuselages scattered along the river bank.  The train was westbound on track operated by Montana Rail Link (MRL) when 19 cars derailed, spilling the equipment down a steep riverbed and into the river. MRL spokeswoman Lynda Frost told a Missoula radio station the derailment happened around 4 p.m. No injuries were reported.
“Those cars contained aircraft components, denatured alcohol and soybeans,” she told KGVO. She said crews worked through the night to recover the load and attempt to clear the tracks.
According to The Associated Press, 13 of the cars that derailed were carrying freight, mostly aircraft parts with some soybeans and denatured alcohol. Six were empty.
Frost said the alcohol didn’t leak and no soybeans spilled. She said crews were working to remove the aircraft parts from the water. The train was headed to Boeing’s final-assembly plant in Renton from Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas. As of Friday, trains were being rerouted while repairs were made. Frost said the line should reopen by Saturday evening.seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023999353_trainderailmentboeingxml.html
from The Seattle Times....Crews to try to remove Boeing 737 fuselages from Montana riverBy BETH KAIMAN - The Associated Press | 5:44PM PDT - Saturday, July 06, 2014 MISSOULA — Crews on Sunday will attempt to remove three Boeing 737 fuselages that tumbled down a steep bank and into the Clark Fork River in western Montana after a train derailed.
Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost said Saturday it’s unclear the type of challenge involved because it’s the first time the company has faced such a task.
No one was injured when 19 cars from a westbound train derailed Thursday about 10 miles west of Alberton. The cause of the derailment is under investigation. The train carried six fuselages. Three others also fell off but stayed on land. Frost says Boeing has had workers at the scene assessing the damage.
The fuselages were headed to Renton to be assembled into completed airliners.blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/07/crews-to-try-to-remove-boeing-737-fuselages-from-montana-river
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Post by errolmartyn on Jul 6, 2014 15:09:18 GMT 12
The look like fish out of water, or perhaps giant whitebait but coloured green!
Errol
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Post by ErrolC on Jul 6, 2014 16:25:08 GMT 12
It's ok, these are for Alaskan, they will head upstream shortly!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 6, 2014 16:47:05 GMT 12
An ex-workmate of mine from Napier went off to work for Wisconsin Central in the late-1990s, but decided they were a mongrel outfit to work for, so worked out his five-year contract, then started looking around and signed on with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, initially working out of Chicago, but he eventually moved to Montana where he is still based. I caught up with Steve a couple of years ago when he was back in NZ catching up with family and he told me he often drives those trains hauling Boeing 737 fuselages enroute from Witchita, Kansas to Seattle, Washington.
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Post by Bruce on Jul 6, 2014 17:36:25 GMT 12
Looks like there should be some nice zero-time Boeing Wendy Houses on the market soon - may have a slight dampness problem.
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Post by beagle on Jul 6, 2014 21:28:33 GMT 12
what, more leaky homes
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Post by flyinkiwi on Jul 7, 2014 9:56:37 GMT 12
I've heard of green recycling but this is ridiculous!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 7, 2014 13:07:01 GMT 12
from The Seattle Times....Tough task pulling fuselages from Montana riverBy NICK PROVENZA - The Associated Press | 2:57PM PDT - Sunday, July 06, 2014 This July 5th picture shows components of three Boeing aircraft sitting near or in the Clark Fork River after the train carrying them derailed near
Missoula, Montana. The parts were being transported from Kansas City, Missouri, to their final assembly location at a Boeing facility in Renton.
— Wiley E. Waters Whitewater Rafting/European Pressphoto Agency (click on the image to download a larger version).MISSOULA, MONTANA — Removing three Boeing 737 fuselages from the Clark Fork River in western Montana after a train derailment could take until Tuesday.
Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost says progress at the site on Sunday is slow as a crew of 50 with eight heavy equipment machines works in conjunction on the steep bank.
No one was injured when 19 cars from a westbound train derailed Thursday about 10 miles west of Alberton. The cause of the derailment is under investigation.
The train carried six fuselages. Three others also fell off but stayed on land.
Boeing says it has experts at the scene to assess the damage.
The fuselages were traveling from a Spirit AeroSystems plant in Wichita, Kansas, to be assembled into airliners at a Boeing facility in Renton.blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/07/tough-task-pulling-fuselages-from-montana-river
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 7, 2014 14:26:54 GMT 12
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 8, 2014 23:46:26 GMT 12
from The Seattle Times....First of three 737 fuselages pulled from river’s edgeBoeing is still assessing the extent of the damage to six 737 narrow-body
jet fuselages resulting from the July 3rd train derailment in Montana.
Large structural parts for the 777 and 747 widebody jets also
on the train have been inspected and appear undamaged.By DOMINIC GATES - Seattle Times aerospace reporter | 5:13PM PDT - Monday, July 07, 2014 Rafters on the Clark Fork River get a surreal view as they pass three Boeing 737 fuselages
that slid down a steep embankment after a freight train carrying them derailed near
Alberton, Montana, on Thursday. Removing the fuselages could take until Tuesday.
— Photo: Jerry Compton/Wiley E. Waters Whitewater Rafting.BOEING said it is still assessing the extent of the damage to six 737 narrowbody jet fuselages resulting from Thursday’s train derailment near Rivulet, Montana.
The large structural parts for 777 and 747 widebody jets that were also on the train have been inspected and appear undamaged, Boeing said on Monday.
A Montana Rail Link spokeswoman said it took about 12 hours to remove the first of the three fuselages that slid down an embankment to the edge of the Clark Fork River.
Spokeswoman Lynda Frost said on Monday that specialized machines are pulling the 20-ton fuselages attached to 50-ton flatbed cars from the embankment one at a time at a rate of 20 feet per hour.
Frost said the most difficult fuselage to retrieve was removed safely on Sunday. Crews are attempting to remove the fuselages and their flatbed cars without causing any additional damage, she said, and they were aiming to have all three removed by Tuesday.
Three other 737 fuselages also fell off the train during Thursday’s derailment 50 miles west of Missoula, and at least one broke into pieces.
Investigators from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems are examining the wreckage.
The complete fuselages were built by Spirit in Wichita, Kansas, and were en route to the Boeing final-assembly plant in Renton.
Company spokesman Doug Alder said Boeing won’t decide what to do with the fuselages — how best to retrieve them and whether they can be repaired or need to be scrapped — until the damage assessment is complete.
The 747 and 777 assemblies will be shipped to the Boeing final-assembly plant in Everett, arriving over the next several days, Alder said.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation. Derailed Boeing loads line the Clark Fork River on July 4th following a derailment the previous day. — Photo: Ted Curphey.The huge blue-green fuselages are a common sight on railways along the 2,000-mile route from Kansas to Washington state.
Ken Evans, senior manager for Spirit, said the company ships 42 of the 737 fuselages each month.
Spirit, formerly a unit of Boeing, has been designing, building and shipping the fuselages by rail from Wichita since 1968, he said.
“In my memory, we’ve not had a serious derailment like this before,” he said Monday.
The fallen hulls became a spectacle for rafters to gawk at while floating past the partially submerged fuselages on the Clark Fork River.
Jason Shreder, owner of Zoo Town Surfers, about a quarter-mile up the river, told the Missoulian newspaper that a few people booked raft trips over the weekend to see the fuselages and other debris from the derailment.• Information from the Associated Press is included in this report.seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024012803_737derailmentxml.html
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 10, 2014 17:29:54 GMT 12
from The Seattle Times....As 3rd 737 fuselage is retrieved, Boeing ponders production impactBoeing said it will take time to make up the 737 production loss following the
July 3rd train wreck in Montana that spilled some fuselages into a river.By DOMINIC GATES - Seattle Times aerospace reporter | 9:43PM PDT - Tuesday, July 09, 2014  A crew pulls a Boeing 737 fuselage up a bank of the Clark Fork River near Alberton, Montana,
on Tuesday. A train derailment last week spilled six fuselages headed for Renton, including
two that wound up in the river. — Photo: Tom Bauer/Associated Press.BOEING is looking to supplier Spirit AeroSystems to step up production to help replace the 737 fuselages damaged in last Thursday’s train wreck in Montana, Pat Shanahan, Boeing’s senior vice president in charge of all commercial-airplane programs, said Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of commonality between (airline) customers, but not to the degree you can just substitute one fuselage for another,” Shanahan said in an interview. “Our intent is to make it up, but it’s not something you can just pull ahead in a matter of weeks or days.
“We’re working right now with Spirit to understand what surge capacity they have,” Shanahan added. “It’s not like they have a lot of extra capacity.”
He said Boeing will also talk to its airline customers to see what accommodations might be acceptable.
Boeing has not said how many of the six newly manufactured 737 jet fuselages can be salvaged.
Nineteen train cars derailed near Alberton in western Montana, spilling three fuselages down a steep embankment toward the Clark Fork River and three more near the tracks.
Two of the three fuselages on the embankment went into the water. One of the fuselages near the tracks was broken in two.
Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost said the last of the three fuselages was hoisted up Tuesday.
Frost says the fuselages and their flat cars each weigh a combined 70 tons.
The fuselages and other airplane parts were being taken from Spirit’s manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas, to Boeing’s final-assembly plant in Renton.
In Renton, Boeing assembles and rolls out two new 737 jets each workday, or 42 per month.
Railroad officials are investigating the cause of the derailment.seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024022511_737wreckxml.html
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