NTSB/RAB-02/01 

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TIONAL TRA S PORTAT

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BOARD

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National Transportation Safety Board 

Washington, D.C. 20594 

Railroad Accident Brief

Accident No.: DCA-01-MR-003 

Location: Nodaway, Iowa 

Date of Accident: March 17, 2001 

Time: 11:40 p.m. central standard time 

Railroads: Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway 

National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) 

Fatalities: 1 

Injuries: 77 

Property Damage: $3.38 million 

Type of Accident: Derailment 

The Accident 

On March 17, 2001, about 11:40 p.m. central standard time, westbound Amtrak 

train No. 5-17, the California Zephyr, derailed near Nodaway, Iowa. Amtrak train No. 5-

17 consisted of 2 locomotive units and 16 cars. All but the last five cars derailed. No fire 

or hazardous materials were involved in the accident. The train crew consisted of an 

engineer and 2 conductors with 13 on-board service personnel. In addition, 241 

passengers were on the train. As a result of the derailment, 78 people were injured, 

including 1 fatal injury. 

Amtrak train No. 5-17 had been operating over class 4 track belonging to the 

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF)1 Creston Subdivision at the time of 

the derailment. A broken rail was discovered at the point of derailment. 

The train had originated at Chicago, Illinois, at 3:35 p.m. on March 17, 2001, 

(30 minutes late) and was destined for Oakland, California. The train crew had boarded at 

Chicago. The engineer on duty when the accident occurred had relieved the original 

engineer at Ottumwa, Iowa, milepost (MP) 280, about 9:00 p.m. 

As the train progressed on its assigned route, the engineer found that the 

horn/whistle on the lead locomotive failed near Murray, Iowa, MP 370, around 

10:21 p.m. He advised the dispatcher for the district of the problem and discussed the 

failure with the conductor. They decided that the conductor would ride in the second 

 1

 The BNSF is a subsidiary of the BNSF Corporation. The BNSF operates one of the largest railroad 

networks in the United States, with 33,500 route miles covering 28 States and 2 Canadian provinces. The 

BNSF network was created in September 1995 through the merger of the rail systems of the Burlington 

Northern Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. 
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locomotive and activate the horn/whistle on the second locomotive when the train 

approached and passed through grade crossings. They used this procedure until, at 

Corning, Iowa, MP 414, the train entered a different train dispatcher’s district. The new 

train dispatcher, upon learning of the malfunctioning horn/whistle, instructed the crew to 

reduce the speed of the train at the grade crossings rather than use the horn/whistle on the 

second unit. The conductor of train No. 5-17 came forward and rode in the lead 

locomotive with the engineer to assist him in observing the crossings. The engineer stated 

(and event recorder information confirmed) that he began reducing the train’s speed at 

grade crossings. At MP 418.94, the train speed had been 16 mph while passing through a 

grade crossing. The engineer was accelerating the train during the approach to the 

accident site (MP 419.92). The event recorder indicated that, at MP 419.90, the train was 

traveling at 52 mph. 

The engineer stated that near MP 419.90, he felt a “tugging” sensation in 

connection with the train’s progress and heard a “grinding, screeching noise,” so he made 

an emergency brake application about 11:40 p.m. When the locomotives came to a stop, 

the engineer and conductor looked back and realized that the train’s cars had uncoupled 

from the locomotives, and most cars had derailed. The cars were about 1/8 mile behind 

the stopped locomotives. The engineer radioed the dispatcher and asked him to contact 

emergency responders. The conductor walked back and surveyed the damage. After 

reaching the cars, the conductor radioed the engineer and said, “...the wreck look[s] real 

bad.” The conductor found the assistant conductor, and they cared for the passengers. 

Soon thereafter, local emergency medical service personnel began to arrive and 

immediately started to evacuate the injured from the train. The emergency response effort 

was completed by 4:00 a.m., March 18. 

A broken rail was discovered at the point of derailment. The broken pieces of rail 

were reassembled at the scene, and it was determined that they came from a 15-foot, 6-

inch section of rail that had been installed as replacement rail at this location in February 

2001. The replacement had been made because, during a routine scan of the existing rail 

on February 13, 2001, the BNSF discovered internal defects near MP 419.92. A short 

section of the continuous welded rail that contained the defects was removed, and a piece 

of replacement rail was inserted. This rail, referred to as a “plug,” was used to replace the 

defective rail segment. The plug rail did not receive an ultrasonic inspection before or 

after installation. It would have been visually inspected for obvious surface damage, 

defects, and excessive wear before installation. 

The Safety Board could not reliably determine the source of the plug rail. Two 

different accounts were given concerning its origin. The local supervisor said the rail 

came from his inventory of rail and had been in the inventory for several years. Another 

engineering manager thought that the rail had come from a rail rehabilitation facility in 

Springfield, Missouri. In either case, the replacement rail would have been rail removed 

from another track location for reuse. 

Portions of the broken plug rail were sent to the National Transportation Safety 

Board laboratory for further analysis. The analysis indicated that the rail had multiple 
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internal defects. Specifically, the laboratory found that the rail failed due to fatigue 

initiating from cracks associated with the precipitation of internal hydrogen. Cracks 

associated with the precipitation of internal hydrogen occur in steels due to excessive 

hydrogen content produced during processing. 

Replacing Defective Rails 

At the time of the accident, the BNSF was revising the directions for replacing 

defective rail that appear in its BNSF Engineering Instructions. The revised BNSF 

instructions added four new items for maintenance personnel to consider when selecting a 

replacement rail.2

 None of the new selection instructions would have disqualified the 

Nodaway plug rail segment for use as a replacement rail. 

According to the engineering instructions, as revised March 1, 2001, the BNSF 

was aware that defective rail might be replaced with another piece of defective rail. The 

manual stated: 

Poor quality rail used for defect removal may itself become defective. One 

survey found that 17 percent of defects during the month measured were in 

rails installed to remove previous defects. 

Altogether (including the four new instructions), the BNSF Engineering 

Instructions list seven guidelines to help personnel avoid using a defective rail to replace 

a known defective rail. The guidelines are based on previously determined methods of 

identifying marginal rail. For example, they state “Do not use ‘A’ rails or non-control 

cooled rail 112# or heavier for replacement in main track and sidings,” because historical 

experience has shown that “A” rail and non-control cooled rail have a relatively high 

incidence of internal defects. All seven guidelines rely on external indicators or previous 

knowledge of the rail to disqualify the replacement piece. Nothing in the instructions 

requires BNSF personnel to scan replacement rail for internal defects before installing it 

in place of a known defective rail. 

Regulatory Requirements 

Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 213.113 provides guidelines for 

replacing defective rail. The regulations are primarily concerned with the nature of the 

defect in the rail, the circumstances under which the defective rail may temporarily 

continue in use, and the timetables for replacing the defective rail. Nothing in the 

regulations provides a screening process for selecting or ensuring the quality of a 

replacement rail. 

 2

 The new instructions were 1) If the track carries more than 20 million gross tons (mgt)/year, make 

every effort to use rail known to have accumulated less than 500 mgt, or rail no more than 5 years older 

than parent rail; 2) Use replacement rail with good surface quality, with no corrugation, head checking, 

shelling, or spalling; 3) Do not use rail branded “Algoma,” “British,” “Vilru,” or “Workington”; and, 4) Do 

not use rail recovered from the main body of curves relayed due to defects or rail surface condition. 
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Title 49 CFR 213.233 provides track inspection requirements. The required 

inspection periods for class 4 track are twice weekly, with at least 1 calendar day between 

inspections. The BNSF exceeded these criteria and conducted daily inspections on the 

section of track where the accident took place. According to regulation, inspections must 

be performed either “on foot or by riding over the track in a vehicle at a speed that allows 

the person making the inspection to visually inspect the track structure for compliance 

with this part.” 

Title 49 CFR 213.237 requires that rail systems conduct “A continuous search for 

internal defects” on their tracks. For class 4 track, the minimum frequency of inspection 

required is “at least once every 40 mgt or once a year, whichever interval is shorter.” 

Again, the BNSF exceeded these criteria with respect to the accident area and scanned the 

rail for internal defects once every 30 days. 

Actions Taken Since the Accident 

Since the Nodaway accident, the BNSF has required its maintenance personnel to 

scan some replacement rails for internal defects before the rails are inserted into existing 

track. However, the testing requirement applies only to main tracks over which passenger 

trains travel and/or which have train densities of at least 20 mgt per year.3 The BNSF has 

approximately 29,043 miles of main track, of which 9,157 track miles are on passenger 

routes, and 10,126 track miles are on nonpassenger routes that carry more than 20 mgt per 

year. 

The Safety Board is not aware of any class I railroad other than the BNSF with a 

procedure for checking the internal quality of rail being used to replace known defective 

rail. Most railroads rely on the fact that all existing rail is ultrasonically scanned while in 

place on the track, in accordance with the requirements at 49 CFR 213.237. Therefore, if 

a piece of rail has been removed from a track location and stored for future use as 

replacement rail, a railroad may assume that the replacement rail was scanned while in its 

previous location and that it passed that inspection. However, this was the process used 

for the plug rail that failed in the Nodaway accident, and that plug rail was, in fact, 

defective. 

 3

 In 1999, the train density for the track on which the Nodaway accident occurred was approximately 

104 mgt. 
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Probable Cause 

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of 

the derailment of Amtrak train No. 5-17 was the failure of the rail beneath the train, due 

to undetected internal defects. Contributing to the accident was the Burlington Northern 

and Santa Fe Railway’s lack of a comprehensive method for ensuring that replacement 

rail is free from internal defects. 

Adopted: March 5, 2002 
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Recommendations 

As a result of its investigation of the Nodaway, Iowa, railroad accident, the 

National Transportation Safety Board makes the following safety recommendations: 

To the Federal Railroad Administration: 

Require railroads to conduct ultrasonic or other appropriate inspections to ensure 

that rail used to replace defective segments of existing rail is free from internal 

defects. (R-02-5) 

To Class I and Passenger Railroads (except the Burlington Northern and 

Santa Fe Railway): 

Conduct ultrasonic or other appropriate inspections on all rail used to 

replace defective segments of existing rail to ensure that the replacement 

rail is free from internal defects. (R-02-6) 

To the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation: 

Implement a permanent policy of inspecting for internal defects, using 

ultrasonic or other appropriate means, any rail used to replace a defective 

segment of existing rail. (R-02-7)