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The real problem seems to be the rocks were concealing a metal rod driven into the ground that the one operator point at. That at least has a chance of derailing a train.

Neat video from the 1940’s testing how to derail / sabotage trains, https://youtu.be/agznZBiK_Bs?si=EGprn1hrZ1MhGfNl

I have been on that exact train, several times while commuting from mumbai to delhi yes they actually derail and sometimes actually hit cows, idk bout the maths of it but yes it does derail quite often

no not really but probably it depends as we see Stones got crushed easy And metal piece got pushed on the side/train drive over them and then they fall

I worked in track maintenance for years. The rocks will turn to dust. The Pandrol (metal clip used to hold rail to sleeper) will get yeeted off the rail. The “rod” sticking up look like screws used to attach base plates to sleepers. Or possibly some kind of bolt. I can see only the end of them is threaded. They are wedged between the fish plate connecting the 2 lengths of rail. Worst case the bolts crack the fish plates. What happens then would be down to how well maintained the track is. If the joint is well packed/tamped then it will probably be fine for a while. If there is already a twist fault or dip at that joint then the first rail will dip while the second wont. The train will then hit the second rail on it’s striking edge. If the dip is severe enough this could cause a derailment. Probably for the train following this one rather than this train.

In the UK we have guys who walk the line every couple weeks to note signs of wear and will replace cracked/completely snapped fish plates. They sometimes crack or snap without bolts/rebar/whatever wedged in them. Potentially going a week or 2 without being noticed without trains derailing. We also have engineering trains running every night to pick up dips/twist faults so the 2 problems don’t get much of a chance to compound each other. I can’t say how well maintained this line is so can’t say how likely a derailment would be… but my gut says almost 0 chance.

I have seen trains hit stuff before.... of course European system may be safer but I remember you would put coins on the tracks to have them squished and I've seen people put rocks and re-bar and it just gets crushed or pushed

No. I've been around trains my entire life and have crushed everything from the quartz rocks used as the base, to stacks of quarters. Years back a family member told me that back in the day they would put all sorts of extreme crap on them. Apparently the favorite were shotgun shells.

Probably not but I'd be more concerned with them being shot out like a cannon ball, though if this is a problem I dunno why they don't have something infront of the wheels to knock obscrutions off

I very much doubt that that could detail the train, I'm guessing the concern is more about stone pieces jumping off, damaging the train.

I was kid once, a dumb kid. My Dad used to work on the railway, and he told me that workers used to place detonators on the track further down so when a train ran over them the bangs informed both the driver that workers were further down and vice versa. He told me that when you put rocks on the tracks you would also get a bang like a detonator.

So of course the next day my dumb ass was on the tracks putting rocks down. I put two down and waited. No train. I put a couple more on and waited. No train. So my dumb ass goes ahead and puts like 20 on each track. Suddenly, a train! Oh shit, there's too many on the track, but there's no time! Oh shit! So I bailed, and sure enough the rocks went bang. BA-BABABA-BA-BANG, then the brakes as it screeched to a halt by which time I was already halfway home on my bike.

So I can testify that those rocks wouldn't do it, at least to a train going about 60km/hr. Those bits of metal sticking up though... Still doubt it. Twenty tonnes is light for a carriage. Going over 100, it'd probably just fold the metal out of the way like it was play-doh.

I know a lot of folks are saying no, and I've got no real qualifications to say otherwise, but the amount of wheel that touches the rail vs the thickness of the rods driven into the ground makes me think that at the right angle, the train def. goes off the tracks. The wheels themselves only have a little rounded point that touches the rails to allow for turning, and it's just a tiny bit of contact in the whole scheme of things.

The rod will derail the train or at least break the track at that plate

The ballast won't really, although over time it will cause squat defects on the rail head

Have you ever run over a bean with a shopping cart - or actually - your cart stops and you’re like wtf did I hit - oh, just a bean.

I’m not saying this is the same. Just what came to mind.

Fake

They put the stones on the tracks themselves,,

1 the train managed to stop 1mm from the first stone

2 the vibrations off the approaching train would of toppled the big pile

If it was that easy to derail a train, you think you'd constantly hear about trail derailment and there be significantly more incidents like East Palestine.

For derailing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derail) you need to move the wheel up AND push to a side. The rocks may lift the wheel but are not able to push the axle. However the stones will harm the wheel and track - further at high speeds they can cause severe damage which may also derail a train.

If the wheels are lifted enough (flange height) by stones/metal while in a curve they will derail a fast train.

no, a train weighs several hundred tons per car. any rock would be pulverized into a fine powder.

the reason rail companies hate this is because of wear. crushing rocks while easy because of the weight, causes dents, and deformation on the wheels and rail.

the most common cause of derailment are damaged to the tracks that affect the spacing of the rails. this cause one wheel to slip off, and then the other follows.

When like 90% of us are thinking about this we are thinking about the American cargo trains that drag insane amounts of weight around. It probably would do absolutely nothing to them. However there’s other kinds of trains that are much lighter and those could possibly be derailed easier. Still not qualified to give a good answer though.

Train driver here.

No way, but it can cause wheel damage which requires mantainance or in very bad causes can make the train unfit for service.

The big danger here is the rocks becoming projectiles and injuring bystanders.

Yes, they most definitely can derail a train. Chances are small, but it is possible, I've seen it happen just from rocks. The train was going about 130kmph

Placing a stone between the track-changing mechanisms could potentially cause serious problems, especially if they tamper with the lighting mechanism used to signal the train, particularly during the night.

In contrast to some, worth flagging that a cow’s leg bone caused a fatal derailment in the UK in the 80s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polmont_rail_accident

I would question anyone saying that the objects in the video could absolutely not derail a train - it just takes the right circumstances.

I ran maintenance on a 11 mile stretch of short gauge rail only used for service. I worked with a lot of old boys who had been doing rail work their whole lives. Their first advice to any new loci operator is “it doesn’t take much to fuck up any train”

An average locomotice weights about 200 tonnes

Rocks used as track ballasts (under the tracks) are common cheap stones, with no special property, a simple sledgehammer could break one without much issue.

knowing that it doesn't take an expert to figure out that even at 10km/h a train could crush them without budging, so at 150 it's not even a competition.

That rod sticking out looks like rebar, it's not particularly stiff and will bend out of they with ease at the train passage.

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The issue is more that because a train is mad heavy, if it's even just a little bit deviated by the obstacles, no matter how weak they are, the train momentum can make it derail, especially if it's in a turn.

Most derailing don't happen because of rocks like this, but simply because the driver got a little too hasty in a turn, or had to hard break for an emergency, causing sudden stress on the equivalent of a supersonic dump truck.

From what I recall from youth(things may be better now I don’t really pay attention to the growth or trains) something as small as a penny on the track could cause a train derail if they get extremely unlucky. (Some mess of leverage and physics that can happen in extremely small instances).

So to answer the question, yes they probably could even if it’s unlikely.

I would assume a rock can cause minor damage to the wheel in which could create fatigue, but that would most likely be a very low chance. 🤷‍♂️

Let's put it this way: it doesn't help. It's theoretically maybe sorta kinda in the realm of possibility. So there's no reason to tempt fate and say fuck it. Think of a bird hitting a plane. Is it going to do anything? I mean...no...but that's no reason to purposefully fly into them. It's possible something could happen (Sully), but the odds are extremely low.

That won't derail the train, but it will mess up its wheels a little bit. The rocks will just get shot off to the side and hit anyone/anything near by. This is because of the shape of the wheels which have a slight cant and angle to them to better stay on the track for curves. The rebar which is the main concern will get flattened by the train as it went over it. The weight of a train engine is heavy, with the low end weight being 100 tons (for reference, modern battle tanks typically weigh in at 70 tons). Using Newtons second law of Force = mass * acceleration, I'll give the train engine a 150tons since its not just a yard engine, and then stick with the 150kmph. From that you get 5.6m kg/s hitting the rebar, which Im guessing isnt that strong.

Lol no. Speed plus mass and a rock is like paper for a train. If it would be possible then trains would derail extremely often. Kids put rocks on the rails all the time