Amtrak 49 Derailment in Batavia, NY - 8/3/94 - Pt. 1

Part One - Aerial and ground footage of the Lake Shore Limited Derailment in Batavia, NY on 8/3/94.

Background - there were 2 locomotives and 16 cars carrying over 400 passengers when Amtrak 49 jumped the tracks just outside Batavia, NY. The last nine cars of the train left the tracks and rolled down an embankment. Over 100 were injured, but none fatally.
For those familiar with the Lake Shore Limited, the two locomotives and the first seven cars of the train (none of which left the track) originated in Boston, while the last 8 cars of the train were part of the NYC section of the train. The first car to completely leave the tracks - the dome car - was added on to the train at Albany when the Boston and NYC sections of the train were joined. This dome car arrangement only existed during the Summer of 1994, once the Auto Train went to Superliners and prior to the Lake Shore Limited debuting viewliners.
The last nine cars of the train were all scrapped following the derailment.

NTSB Report: http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1996/RAR9602.pdf

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Amtrak
• 49
• Lake
• Shore
• Limited
• Derailment
• Batavia
• NY
• August
• 1994

[slervag]

I spent 8 days in hospital after beeing a passenger on this train... What a vacation... :-)

[sasilv1129]

Glad you eventually ended up okay. What a terrible experience.

[amtrakrailfan]

Wow i bet this was very scary and when did they get ride of the horizontal fleet for the amfleet?

[sasilv1129]

They got rid of the heritage coaches on the Lake Shore Limited around a year or so after this derailment occurred in favor of Amfleet II coaches.

[kaiebeau]

thanks for sharing this video. I was in the dome car when it flipped off the tracks. I've only been on a train once since then and I'll never get on a train again. I never heard what the actual cause of the derailment was.

[sasilv1129]

You're welcome. What a horrible experience that must have been for you. I'm glad that you at least made it out okay. The link to the NTSB investigation regarding the cause of the derailment is at the bottom of my information page for this video.

[EdWittenable]

@sasilv1129 That link no longer works.

[fooshelf]

@WaitWhatWasThat1 It happened in the town of batavia in between Rose rd and wortendyke, or somewhere near there.

[WaitWhatWasThat1]

Where in batavia was this?

[slervag]

@jfsa380 Don't know. I don't have any information why it happened except waht I'm reading here....

[jfsa380]

@slervag why'd it jump?

[TEMPLE7D]

@howardkevinm according to the NTSB report... the baggage car's trucks were reassembled wrong... causing the car to "tilt".. also the tracks had lots of lumps and humps due to fast and heavy freight trains.

[Smokewraith]

I remember this, I was driving to work that morning and they stopped us at Wortendyke. Thankfully noone was killed. thanks for posting these.

[howardkevinm]

excessive heat flatted out the rails and the cars simply slipped off the rain because the flanged wheels couldnt grip the track as the head was flat