Several incidents today: 1) Tunnel in Pikesville KY burning since Saturday for CSX branch coal line, service suspended indefinitely 2) Oil train derailment in Lynchburg VA- 12-15 tank cars derailed, 3 on fire, oil spilled in James River, drinking water affected 3) Heavy rainfall causes mudslide which covers CSX tracks in Baltimore In addition CSX flooded out today in Pensacola FL, while a highway bridge collapsed yesterday on a CSX secondary line near Moncks Corner, SC (that line has been reopened) I’m sure CSX cannot wait for this day to end…
I think you’ve let the Chicken Little, 24 hour news panic industry sway your common sense. I think most would agree, that all of the above added together and multiplied by 10 still wouldn’t be as bad as the Lac-Mégantic derailment last year.
Everything happens in three’s. Thus endeth this lesson. Class dismissed.
Local TV ( Columbus, Ga. ) said floods in Pensacola dropped another bridge onto CSX tracks ? If so maybe CSX should be called the bridge line ?
note topic says “U.S.”
Fair enough. These 3 incidents are the worse than the Graniteville S.C. accident? Or 100 other accidents that caused destruction and loss of life?
I think the point is not so much the severity of any one of these accidents. Rather, it is that on one single day there were so many of them on one railroad and several of them were pretty serious.
I’m sorry, but to me this looks like just a continuation of the problems on CSX, which doesn’t seem to be able to catch a break. Will it not be easier to remove a pile of mud and debris from a block-long area in Baltimore than it will to unclog the freight trains hampering the main lines into Chicago?
The Pensacola route doesn’t exist, anyway. Didn’t the weather wipe out that route years ago, causing Amtrak to suspend its trains (numbers 1 and 2, no less!) between New Orleans and Jacksonville? The trains haven’t come back, therefore the tracks must not have, either. Right?
As for the other two: take all the dirt and debris (automobiles excluded) that fell onto the tracks in Baltimore, and put it under the tracks in Lynchburg. Problems solved.
(May is Sarcastics Awareness Month in these here parts.)
Lac-Mégantic had a huge impact on US rail operations, both with new regulations and government/public scrutiny. Sure, these problems CSX have will be costly and disruptive, but can be easily fixed.
Stuff like the Lac-Mégantic, Graniteville, Chatsworth, and even the Metro-North wreck will have a long and lasting impact for years to come. And you can argue these incidents have, at the very least, helped change the face of modern day railroading in the US.
You should see some pictures of the Decatur Illinois yard following several full propane cars levelling everything many years ago.
But, Zug…the incidents you refer to have nothing to do with the problems being experienced today by CSX and others. NJT has suspended service between Denville and Montclair State University because of a washout at Towaco in New Jersey and Metro North and Amtrak are dealing with a mudslde along the Hudson. Wet and saturated ground has been hammered by extreme rains making underfoot treacherous and undeterminable. CSX gets rightful blame for many things. But this time MN…Mother Nature…shoulders the blame. And as rains fall today, and creeks and streams feed rivers, there will be more problem.
Yes. I know. I was referring to the topic of this thread. Yes, I know there are a lot of issues due to the rain. I’ve had several inches here at home, too. But I would hardly regard it as the worst day in modern US railroad history.
But once the tracks are cleaned up, it will be business back to usual. Not the same for the incidents I have named in my last post.
And it just keeps on:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/01/3432983/train-derails-again/
But let’s be honest - if it weren’t for the other incidents, would a couple coal cars coming off the track have warranted any real attention?
But think about it: the references to the previous incident along with picture of the flaming oil reminded us that it could have been worse. After all, the whole coal train could have exploded into a towering inferno.
Using that train of thought, shouldn’t the media be focusing on each and every highway accident that involves a truck? After all, that truckload of pigs could have been a truckload of something incredibly deadly.
And remember- bad news sells. [
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Or the earlier, and even more devastating, ammunition train ‘problem’ at Roseville, CA.
They’re still finding UXB from that one. A contemporary photo showed so many loose iron bombs it looked like an Easter egg roll.
Chuck
The Baltimore mudslide is a consequence of the collapse of the CSX-owned retaining wall on one side of their ROW.
CSX released the following statement:
“CSX is working around the clock in Baltimore to support fast and full recovery from the embankment collapse Wednesday afternoon that covered a segment of a rail line. The company’s primary focus is on the wellbeing of area residents, especially those who had to leave their homes, on first responders and other agencies and on restoring customer service. Working with local authorities, assessments of the embankment collapse continue and there are no immediate estimates on the resumption of customer service. Updates will be provided as available.”
The collapse came after heavy rains over the previous 24 hours brought flooding to the region, but the cause is still under investigation.
It’s on the old Royal Blue Line.
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2014/04/30/railroad-retaining-wall-collapses-in-charles-village/
If the day before had no accidents, could we conclude that it was possibly the best day in the history of modern U.S. freight rail?
NWS reported that Baltimore (at the airport) got 8.6 inches of rain for the month of April - 2nd most in recorded history - the most was 8.7 inches in 1889 (and I doubt that reading was done at the airport).
Some areas around town got even more.
Mass quantities of water do ‘strange’ things to things that don’t have a hardened foundation in bedrock.