I have read and checked the last two issues you would think that something this big where this is a loss of life would get some photos and some coverage. I checked Railpace mag as well and nothing. I buy Trains at my newsstand.
The magazine might not cover the story of the wreck itself. Perhaps they will cover the NTSB findings of the cause of the derailment. However, that NTSB conclusion could be many moons from now.
The October 2012 issue of “Railpace” has some photos and a brief story on the Ellicott City wreck on page 22. Nothing about the possible cause of the wreck, however.
Sad, I know exactly where that is, I’ve been to the museum.
With the lead times involved in the magazine’s production - several weeks to several months - and the ambiguous nature of the event (What were those 2 girls doing there ? What caused the derailment ?), as well as the time it took to confirm the basic facts, it may be the next issue or so before there’s any mention of it. The derailment was August 20 - 21, 2012 - see:
- Paul North.
I’m the photographer whose work and account appeared in Railpace. Other railfan photographers reported difficulty in accessing the accident site; I was there in high-visibility vest with a camera bag and scanner, and police let me past police lines.
I immediately offered photographs to the editors of Trains, Railfan & Railroad, and Railpace. Only Railpace bit.
One problem with the coverage is that the area in which the derailment occurred is extremely tightly clustered and confined. The hillside from which my photos, and most of the news media’s photos and TV coverage of the incident, were made (the front yard of a church) was basically the only place that Howard County Police were allowing the media, or anyone else, to observe the derailment. Trees obscured any view of the piled-up hoppers from any place except a helicopter. To get from one side of the river to another required a drive of several miles, and to get downtown required a half-mile walk downhill from the parking lots at the top of town. The fact that the two deaths occurred directly on the overpass over Main Street made matters especially delicate, shall we say, and police weren’t keen on gawkers apparently hoping to see a death scene, or worse.
The other matter seems to be that, the special “TRAIN WRECKS” issue of Trains notwithstanding, neither Trains nor R&R seemed that interested in covering what seemed to be a somewhat average, run-of-the-mill derailment which only by spectacularly bad luck killed two trespassers. By the grace of [choose a deity], the derailing cars missed both the Ellicott City RR Station Museum and historic buildings across Main Street. I’m cynically of the opinion that if the fatalities had been unattractive male high-school dropouts high on marijuana, the news wouldn’t have spread much further than Baltimore and central Maryland. Add two pretty young girls, however, and CNN shows up.
More here:&nbs
Well LNER, you did pretty good considering the adversity you had to work around. Good shots. And I can attest to the “congestion”, for lack of a better term, of Ellicott City. It’s a compact, early 19th Century town with the buildings right on top of each other and not a lot of room. Very charming actually, but I can appreciate your difficulties in getting a good vantage point. You did well!
As to the girls on the bridge, I’ve read the bridge is something of an 'on again-off again" hangout for the local kids. They’re tresspassing of course, but kids have been going to the bridge for years. These poor girls were really in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Thinking about this a just little further: What for do we need Trains to cover it as well ? It was already well-covered - and better-covered, really - by most of the major news media - what is Trains going to be able to add ? The correct model of the locomotives ? Weeks/ months after the event ? What is good or useful about that ?
Add in the trespasser and tragic aspects, and some of the factual uncertainties mentioned above, and I can see why the magazine’s editors might not want to touch this story with the proverbial 10-ft. pole - no matter what they do with it, they’ll appear to be either unsympathetic, sensationalizing, and/ or not coming down hard enough on trespassing, etc. So not mentioning it at all may be the prudent and least offensive course of action to the readership, advertisers, and to the rail industry.
- Paul North.
Where “Trains” coverage would be appreciated is when the accident investigation is completed and the report published. By the time that’s done the mainstream medias news cycle will have moved on to the point the Ellicott City accident is just a faded memory, and they won’t bother with it. For example, anyone heard anything about the “Costa Concordia” or Captain Schettino lately?