Off the Rails: Train Crash Damages New Ford F-150 Pickups

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy
off the rails train crash damages new ford f 150 pickups

As if Ford didn’t have enough headaches in terms of pickup truck supply, the derailment of a train carrying a load of the things has thrown the automaker even further off track. According to local media, a freight train ran into trouble while hauling the things through Missouri, creating a stack of metal that Blue Oval suits certainly could do without seeing right now.

Here’s the good news: no injuries or environmental damage was reported, save for the new pair of pants that was surely required for the train’s operator.

The midday incident occurred earlier this week when nearly four dozen train cars jumped the tracks and caused quite the mess about 100 miles from St. Louis. Aerial photos from the scene show automotive carriers piled up as if a child has suddenly abandoned their playtime in a huff, with metal and debris scattered across the countryside. Close examination of the pics shows F-150 trucks in various states of undress, some hanging out of the now-open carriers like a dog’s tongue on a hot day.

https://twitter.com/RealMiBaWi/status/1422311932565069828

Also among the wreckage were some Transit cargo vans, though it is surely the loss of F-Series pickup trucks that will keep Ford officials up at night given the nation’s inventory shortages of their cash cow. The company has an assembly plant in Claycomo, more commonly known as the Kansas City Assembly Plant; it is likely the vehicles were being transported from that location.

The train company, Norfolk Southern, is apparently investigating the cause of this derailment which caused a stoppage of train traffic for more than 24 hours. These types of wrecks can be tricky to scrutinize, given the sheer amount of material present over a wide area. In the moment, however, the mess was cleaned up by a recovery crew and repairs were made to the track. Missouri State Highway Patrol is reported to have not immediately found a cause for the derailment.

Ford has been taking it on the chin in terms of supply when it comes to its best-seller, with the ongoing microchip and semiconductor shortage wreaking havoc in assembly plants across the country. Year-to-date recorded sales are down 5.5 percent for F-Series, totaling just over 414,000 units. Last month alone, deliveries dove by 26.6 percent compared to July 2020 to 52,314. Those numbers are surely causing gnashing of teeth in certain corner offices of the Glass House, though it must be noted that if the bottleneck is addressed in the second half of this year, we’ll certainly be seeing boasts of ‘best month ever’ as a result of pent up demand.

The entire Ford brand is about flat for this year, down 0.7% to just over a million units.

[Image: Ford]

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  • Superdessucke Superdessucke on Aug 07, 2021

    Ouch. That must have made one hell of a racket!

  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Aug 08, 2021

    Interesting that the F-150s appeared to be in Transit somewhere, and if the smaller van was among the destroyed, you could say that all the vehicles were on the (Transit) Express to nowhere! I know, I know, when you have to work that hard for one of these…! Remember to tip your server (if the restaurant is still open)! I’ll show myself out!

  • Tassos The EQS is the best looking BEV, better than even the only Tesla I would ever consider (the S) and more luxurious inside etc etcThe self driving features will come in handy when I'm 110 and my eyesight and reaction times start to suffer.But that's four decades away, and only Tim recommends 40 year old "used cars"
  • Tassos "Baby, Baby light my fire!""Oh God please give me a Kia Forte" --Janis Joplin
  • Tassos The fugly looks of any Subaru, and especially the non-sporty non-elegant, fugly, low-rent looks and interior of the WRX are alone a sufficient turnoff to never want to own one.One can be a 100% car enthusiast but ALSO demand a beautiful AND luxurious vehicle one can be truly proud of and which makes one very happy every time one drives it.The above is obviously totally foreign to Subaru Designers and managers.Αnd who cares if they sell all they make? this is 100% worthless bragging, since they hardly make ANY. ALL of Subaru's models together, all dozen of them, sell less than the top selling Toyota or Honda or even Tesla sells. ANd furthermore, if you have the intellectual horsepower to understand it, bulldude, which I am 99% sure you sure as hell do not, it is NOT about the sales units, it is not even about the sales revenue.It is all about the P R O F I T S.Am I going slow enough for you, bulldude?
  • Thehyundaigarage Am I the only one that sees a Peugeot 508?
  • Lou_BC I realized it wasn't EV's burning by the absence of the usual suspects.
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