News reports are indicating a possible runaway train, derailment, fire, and even a car/train accident.
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=83e5b9f1-ec0d-4d4f-8803-97fc12e39878
It appears that two loaded container flats got loose, made it onto the main, then ran downhill until they got to a CSX track crew, where they hit the first vehicle or two they came to, stopping them. There was a fire, probably a track vehicle, as well as reports of hazmat, now reported as being on a track vehicle as well.
The cars were not being handled at the time - more likely either stored or spotted for loading or unloading.
http://www.newzjunky.com/train.htm
One of the flats derailed.
No word yet how they may have gotten loose, but there have been instances previously of idle hands doing things like lifting cut levers, undoubtedly in a “what does this do?” bit of activity.
There were no reported injuries, although the track crew was probably taking a break for clean underwear.
Sounds like the cars were flat switched with the air cut out and gravity took over when the Army switchman forgot to tie the thing down. The folks at Fort Belvoir, VA (USATC) are gonna be ticked! Somebody blundered bigtime.
Hoptoad involved or was there an unapplied or missing derail somewhere in this story?
The M/W lookouts for the CSX welders/ track gang are gonna have a story to tell!
No switcher on Drum - CSX does it all.
Odds are the cars had been sitting long enough to have lost their air. Methinks somebody was playing with stuff they shouldn’t have been playing with (ie, the cut lever, maybe handbrakes). CSX crews in the past have had problems involving cut levers lifted on standing cuts of cars, but those are usually on a downgrade that ends at the loading dock. They get found when the crew tries to pull the train.
The cars probably ran two protected crossings at relatively slow speed, but had enough speed and momentum to blow through a chain-link gate and the trailing point switch onto the main at “Roots.”
Aside from the track crew changing their undies, they’re probably buying the lookout a treat - nobody go hurt, which means he was doing his job.
Fort Drum is saying they’re still missing several cars. Early reports from the scene indicated that there was a fear that more cars were on their way…
The derail question is going to be scrutinized. Cars should have been thrown on the ground long before they got to any main track.
Wouldn’t a base like this be relatively secure from someone from the “outside” just going in and releasing hand brakes or bleeding off the cars?
Along with the lack of derail MC cited, there’s no way the cars should have been able to move if the crew (CSX, according to Tree) tied them down properly.
Ah… you might think it would be secure, but. It’s an awfully large base, and although I have all the respect in the world for the National Guard and the US Army, let’s face it – they’re ordinary folk, by and large, and who’s to say…
Word I’m getting is that the cars were being loaded. After a container was placed the car(s) started to move. Most likely there was no one around with sufficient RR knowledge to do anything about it while the movement was slow.
There is every possibility that one of the people working on loading the cars may have taken the brake off or pulled a cut lever. Idle hands and ignorance, you know - nothing malicious. I watched CSX trying to pull a train one day - gravity prevented a runaway in the first place, but someone (idle hands, donchaknow) had lifted a number of the cut levers, resulting in a pullapart every time CSX tried to pull a string of cars.
The derail question will undoubtedly get scrutiny. I’ve been at that particular switch and there isn’t one now. The chain link gate at the installation boundry is still on the coupler of the first car…
I still haven’t figured out where the other 4 cars that supposedly ran away ended up. They aren’t in initial pictures from the scene.
Reports are that the cars hit a hi-rail crane at 40. The crane caught fire. Due to the numerous propane, etc, tanks in the area (track gang), the fire department played it safe and kept their distance. One almost-witness reports seeing men with hard hats running away before the collision.
Summertime (no school) + bored dependant children sometimes equals very bad things. If that were to be the case (which is unlikely), I sure would hate to be the sponsor parent.
More info.
The cars jumped one, and possibly two derails.
Someone apparently jumped on the cars right after they started moving, but had no idea how to set the brakes… He then bailed back off.
One of the workers loading the cars was able to get out ahead of it to one crossing, where he convinced a motorist who was sitting on the crossing that he should move, NOW!
The track workers had several minutes warning. The one injury was a sprained ankle on a worker fleeing the scene.
The cars covered the 8+ miles in approximately 12 minutes. They got to at least 40, and may have reached 60. A wide curve just before the impact point probably took some speed off.
The runaways took out a speeder, spike puller, another piece of track equipment, then the crane. Parts were scattered far and wide, including in nearby trees.
There is an FRA “convention” around here now.