I just came back from watching a jumbled stack of about eight ethanol tankers burn. An EB NS tank train derailed at the New Brighton end of the bridge over the Beaver River. The train crew was about 30 cars ahead of the derailment and was able to stop safely. It looks like the mainline between Conway PA and Alliance OH will be shutdown for a few days, more if the bridge has been damaged. It looks like the CSX line between Aliquippa and New Castle across the river is also shut down. It will probably stay that way until the area is safe.
Latest news is that there are no injuries to train crew, fire fighters, or residents, and no damage to any private property. (There is a park between tracks and river though.) They are going to let it burn out. Also, ethanol is considered relatively benign to no environmental concerns as yet (at least one car is fully in the river). There were heavy rains the last two days so river is running fast and high which will help disperse any spill. Amtrak between Chicago and Pittsburgh is stopped.
Derailment at New Brighton, PA - Force Majeure in Effect
Service Alert
Derailment at New Brighton, PA - Force Majeure in Effect
October 21, 2006
Norfolk Southern has experienced a main-line derailment at New Brighton, PA, which is between Cleveland, OH and Conway, PA., blocking the mainline tracks. Traffic moving via this corridor, to and from Pittsburgh, PA and points east will incur delay. Norfolk Southern personnel are on the scene working to clear the right of way as soon as possible and restore the line to service.
Note to customers with committed service agreements: Norfolk Southern is invoking Force Majeure effective 12:01 a.m
From Wikipedia: "Force majeure (French for “greater force”) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees one or both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as war, strike, riot, crime, act of God (e.g., flood, earthquake, volcano), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. However, Force Majeure is not intended to excuse negligence or other malfeasance of a party, as where non-performance is caused by the usual and natural consequences of external forces (e.g., predicted rain stops an outdoor event), or where the intervening circumstances are specifically contemplated. Time-critical and other sensitive contracts may be drafted to limit the shield of this clause where a party does not take reasonable steps (or specific precautions) to prevent or limit the effects of the outside interference, either when they become likely or when they actually occur. Note also that a force majeure may work to excuse all or part of the obligations of one or both parties. For example, a strike might prevent timely delivery of goods, but not timely payment for the portion delivered. Similarly, a widespread power outage would not be a force majeure excuse if the contract requires the provision of backup power or other contingency plans for continuity. The importance of the Force Majeure clause in a contract, particularly one of any length in time, cannot be understated as it relieves a party from an obligation under the contract (or suspends that obligation). What is permitted to be a Force Majeure event or circumstance can be the source of much controversy in the negotiation of a contract and a party should generally resist any attempt by the other party to include something that should, fundamentally, be at the risk of that other party. E.g. in a coal supply agreement, the mining company may seek to have “geological risk” included as a Force Majeure event, however the mining company should be
"Twenty-four tank cars that derailed last night with as much as
300,000 gallons of ethanol in them continued to burn alongside a
Beaver County river today.
"About 100 residents of New Brighton remained stranded from their
homes while emergency officials pondered how to contain the explosive
blaze.
“We’ve been monitoring – having a kind-of-wait-and-see attitude – to
see if the fire will stabilize and self extinguish,” said Larry
Morley, borough manager in New Brighton."
Only one CSX detour through Mudville, USA.(Buffalo NY to those of you from Rio Linda) X151 normally a B&O route train came through here earlier today. The storm we had last week (which still has lives disrupted) sent some of our regular trains to the B&O via Newark NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh to Willard, OH.
Our friends should be okay, Joe–their house is some distance upstream from where this happened. Don’t know if it affected the commute, though.
Let’s see, 24 tank cars, 300,000 gallons. That figures out to about 12,500 gallons per tank. I wonder what 1950s-era encyclopedia they were working from–an ethanol tank car carries about 30,000 gallons of the stuff.
I agree. The bridge dates from around 1925 when the PRR agreed to remove the Pittsburgh, Ft Wayne, & Chicago mainline from the middle of of New Brighton to an old canal bed along the river. It looks like the approach span has been char-broiling since 11 PM last night, and the WB rails have been pulled completely off the bridge for about half its length. I imagine the abutment has also been heat damaged as well. I was down in NB around 2 PM and the wreck service trucks are already staging alongside the tracks. There was also a group of MoW equipment parked on the tracks about two miles toward Conway.
The bridge was surveyed by the Historical Engineering Record or whatever its called. You can see a report and lots of pictures on the US Library of Congress site. Search for “New Brighton” or “Beaver Falls” + Pennsylvania.
…From that report it really does sound like the bridge will have severe damage. One thing though…Being a RR bridge it will most likely be put back into service long before than if it would be a highway bridge with similar damage. Just seems RR folks seem to get the job done much quicker than similar highway repairs.
But, my friend, that’s not the way it was worded. If they wanted to, they could have said “about 300,000 gallons of ethanol went up in flames or down the river”.
Yep all’s okay here. This happened about halfway between the house and Conway. It happened sometime after 10 PM last night but the first I knew of it was at 5:30 this morning when I got to the southern end of Beaver Falls a couple blocks short of the bridge to New Brighton and saw flames above some of the buildings by the river. The road was of course closed so I called work and let them know I’d be a few minutes late because something was burning and I’d have to backtrack and find another route. They said “yep, that’s our ethanol train burning.”
Yikes! At least nobody got hurt. Really that’s about the best place between here and Conway that it could have happened, in my opinion, because there are a lot of places that have houses/buildings much closer to the tracks. My house is about 100 ft from the tracks and I would not have enjoyed having that particular type of bonfire in my yard.