This is a story about a train wreck we had last night in the local area. The tracks here are in very good condition and it makes me wonder what happened.
Train Derails in East Rochester
A CSX freight train derailed Tuesday night at Lincoln Road and Maple Avenue in the village of East Rochester.
There are some train cars hanging over the overpass at South Lincoln Road.
Miraculously no one was injured. All 13 cars went off the tracks. There’s no word on what caused the train to derail.
Authorities tell R News the train was enroute from Syracuse to Buffalo when it jumped the tracks. Some of the 13 train cars hit motor vehicles. No homes were struck.
The accident happened around 7 o’clock Tuesday night. Authorities say the train was travelling about 60 miles per hour.
“CSX is unable to get up here until we can clear them, but they’ll be able to immediately find out what the cause of the incident was,” East Rochester Mayor David Bonacchi said. “Right now we don’t think it was anything suspicious or criminal in nature. But we’re still securing the scene. And we’re going to allow CSX, when the time is appropriate, to conduct its investigation.”
A total of 600 homes and businesses were without power Tuesday night. 150 homes and businesses lost service because of the train wreck. Rochester Gas and Electric had to disable the power from another 400 residents and businesses in order to make it safe to clean up the mess.
A temporary shelter is set up at the East Rochester fire house on Main Street for folks to stay warm for the night.
Bonacchi said it was the village’s first train derailment at the Maple/Lincoln Rd. crossing since a similar westbound train derailment in 1969.
The crash is expected to impact traffic around the northeast corner
I am sadly amazed at this. Back in the 1980s we were reading that the days of train derailments were coming to an end.
Well, looks like things in that area haven’t changed much. Of course we should not rush to judgement as far as fault. Investigations have to run their course. Was it equipment failure? Railfailure, Human error? Vandalism? In any case…the ambulance chasers oops[:O]------ I mean attorneys are going to have fun with these mishaps.
If CSX is at fault in these derailments due to poor maintenance practices, then hopefully major changes will occur in the top leadership positions especially since FRA and CSX middle management employees have been repeatedly warning the carrier of conditions in certain areas needing attention.
Is CSX the new Penn Central? Is their track that bad?
It will be PC if we start hearing about standing derailments (when the rails spread beneath the cars and the wheels drop to the mud, even when the cars are sitting still)…
Now, I have some trackwork experience as a volunteer at the New Hope Valley RR, and I can say even the heavy CSX main through Apex, NC has an alarming number of loose or missing spikes. Granted, FRA requires very few good ties and spikes for Class I standards, but when I take my boys railfanning a small part of me wants to bring a spike driver.[sigh]
About 2 years back someone posted and incredible video link over on the TRAINS forum.
It was shot at track level. As a CSX train rolled by, the rails were literally raising up and coming down about 7 inches. That was scary! Hopefully one of you remembers that link.
Even though Seaboard Coast Line was not considered a “rich” railroad like the Santa Fe, their mainline track maintenance standards certainly seemed to be superior to what CSX’s penny pinching management has today.
Where this happened is on the Mainline coming out of East Rochester into Rochester heading West. This is near the area of the Old NYC Shops in East Rochester and an area that has been very well maintained in the past. If I am not mistaken, this summer saw new ties and ballast go into this area. If I hear anything I’ll let you folks know.
Some of the pictures in this mornings paper show very twisted containers like they were made of tinfoil.
Another Story about this one with a photo gallery link:
If you count the coal train that derailed in Crofton Ky about two weeks ago, that makes three in a pretty short time period. As an aside, Crofton is a fairly small town with a major passing siding all the way through it. They also get 30 to 40 trains a day through and when there is a meet it separates the town in half for long periods of time. The town had tried to reach an agreement with CSX about this with no luck so the mayor took matters in his own hands and started giving the CSX engineers tickets. They have now reached an agreement.
Clay Smith
I would think issued by the local cops for obstructing traffic. Not really faulting the engineers, because they can’t control the position they are in, it’s more of a pressure tactic to get management’s attention. I would expect management would (one way or another) have to pay the tickets or fight them, costing the company money either way.
Actually ALL rail joints move from the weight of a passing train…The rail flexes to keep from breaking…To bad those that don’t know that takes videos of a natural occurrence.
CSX is no worst then any other railroads when it comes to derailments ALL major railroads seems to go through a cycle of derailments.
As fas as Penn-Central one must sort the FACTS from the URBAN LEGIONS.All to sadly the urban legions abound more then facts.
A 7" flex IS NOT normal and is all too common on more than just the CSX. Thirty-one years of observing such tracks in the course of my employment taught me that.
Our CSX tracks through WV are in OK shape, but their are derailments that occur more frequently than they should, and just today two teenagers were killed by a NS line in Kentucky or Ohio, I can’t remember, but our C&O Chessie line is pretty safe, mostly because that is what Chessie feeds off of, safety. Just my [2c]
As a former brakeman I seen that many times …It a natural occurrence as any railroad man knows.You have tons of dead weight something is going to give…Even welded rail at the joints move.