USA - coal train derailments

[John Ashworth]

1. CSX coal train wreck in eagle rock

by mr_hurt
Posted on: Apr 24, 2009 at 5:40 PM EDT
Channel: Local News
Location: eagle rock, va

At approximately 3:30pm on friday april 24th a southbound loaded coal train derailed 1/2 mile north of eagle rock, va. No injuries were known as the middle of the train derailed. a small fire was started because the train hit a power pole snaping the lines. no signs of fuel spill were present, even though an idle unoccupied engine was hit in the derailment. the derailment appears to have been from a cars wheels jumping the tracks approx 1 mile before the crash site, as drag marks to the north of the wreck indicated

2. Coal train derails near Washington, Mo.

By Kim Bell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/12/2009

UPDATED, 12:05 p.m., with information on recent inspections of track

WASHINGTON, Mo. -- A train hauling coal to southern Illinois derailed in Franklin County about 6 a.m. today near the town of Washington. No one was injured.

Thirty-six of the train's 142 cars jumped the tracks along the Missouri River riverbank at Route 185 and Highway 100, said Mark Davis, a Union Pacific spokesman in Omaha, Neb. Union Pacific owns the tracks.

Davis said the cause of the derailment is under investigation.

Davis said the cars toppled onto both tracks. Crews and heavy equipment will be working to remove the wreckage. The mangled train cars are sandwiched together, "accordian-style," he said.

"Crews will be working through the night," Davis said.

Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak, said Amtrak trains on the Missouri River Runner route can't use the tracks because cleanup from the derailment should take all day. Magliari said Amtrak has chartered buses to take Amtrak passengers where they need to go. Amtrak runs two eastbound and two westbound trains a day on those tracks.

Amtrak passengers should expect delays because buses don't run as quickly as the trains, Magliari said.

The Union Pacific train was heading east when it derailed 10 miles west of Washington. None of the cars fell into the river, Davis said.

The train was heading to Cora, Ill., about 70 miles south of St. Louis, where the coal was to be put on barges.

Bill Halmich, chief of the Washington Fire Department, said the first call came in at 6:05 a.m. Because the tracks are in a heavily wooded area along the riverbank, fire crews tried to get to the scene two ways: one crew went up river in a boat, the other rushed to the scene in a pumper truck along a gravel road.

The fire department crews were armed with gas monitors and dressed in protective clothing in case there was a leak or explosion. The crews who traveled by land got there first. They found the engineer, who was uninjured, and walked west for nearly a mile to where the cars were derailed.

"They checked flammability, oxygen content, looked for any strange color clouds," Halmich said.

The crews in the river made sure there wasn't any chemical leaking. There wasn't.

Because the area isn't easy to get to, Halmich said Union Pacific's task of clearing the wreckage could be more difficult.

"The topograhy is going to be a challenge with bluffs on one side and the river and the woods on the other side," Halmich said. "But the railroad is going to go at this cleanup with a vengeance and will get it done in short order."

Davis, the Union Pacific spokesman, said the area of track where the derailment happened was inspected Monday, and nothing was amiss. That was a "visual inspection," where an inspector rides the rails in a pickup looking for anything unusual.

The track's last electronic inspection (similar to an X-ray) was on March 30, and no defects were found, Davis said. And a Feb. 23 inspection found the tracks sitting properly, he said. "We try to do two electronic inspections a year on our main line," Davis said.

kbell@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8115