Troublesome...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/two-feared-dead-after-amtrak-train-derails-in-philadelpia/ -- The armchair RAIB on freerepublic opines it was something like a digger/backhoe connected to or working with a ballast regulator.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/nine-injured-in-train-crash/ -- A smaller incident happened in the UK when a train entering a platform pranged one already standing at that platform.

>yfw the comments on every FB article posts are littered with nerds arguing whether it was a backhoe or or some other piece of track equipment

Ballast Cleaner?
I read & saw the animation it was a Backhoe that the train hit
its a tractor with a digger on the rear & a scoop on the front

>>132605 -- And, incidentally, called a tractor-digger in the UK and some other places.

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/news/two-killed-in-wreck-of-amtrak-palmetto.html -- Less inane that some other stuff.

>>132608
The accident happened on old reliable Pennsy-era cab signalling territory. Couldn't imagine that it failed without alerting dispatchers to a problem. Could the abnormally high winds (the workers were there cleaning up wind damage) have managed to force a swinging mechanical arm into the way of the approaching train?

>>132611

Shouldn't there have been a TW issued because of the work going on to slow things down around that area?

>>132614
That's not how track authorities or planned work operate.

It's too late for me to get into all the operating details, but a slow order and roadway worker protection are two very different things.