Train Derailment in Conway, SC.

Trains.com General Discussion (Trains.com)
1

Just saw it on the news,

The investigation is still underway, but anyone who has seen the tracks of the Carolina Southern Railroad knows why. Sun-bent rails, rotted ties, rails spread apart, bad roadbed, and numerous missing spikes, as well a loose ones are they cause.

The road’s speed limit is 10 mph because of the track. In fact, I think a good portion of the rails hasn’t been re-placed since the Seaboard Coast Line days.

Country Club Drive was closed for 2 hours and it will take a while for the mess to be cleaned up. I am going up there tommorrow morning to take pictures (I have pictures all 4 derailments on the line in the past 12 months, and 2 were in almost the same place and just a month apart).

In my opinion, its only a matter of time before a train is lost in the Wacamaw River. Its a shame. The owner has a very nice (and LARGE) car collection, with 3 more under restoration in a little repair shop that once had a track in it for locomotive repair, yet he dosen’t seem to have the money to re-place ties and rails, or even to stablize the road bed.

The railroads locomotives haven’t had a new coat of paint since years before I was born. Some are still lettered for pre-Carolina Southern railroads. You can still see N&W lettering under paint of a GP18 and Southern lettering (and the Wacamaw Coast Line nose herald) on the roads GP-30 that only received a crude over-painting of the herald and letters.

I say its time for the Pippin’s to hand over the railroad to someone who will properly care for it, instead of only giving maintinance when its very badly needed. (Pardon my grammer and “wordage”. It just needed to rant)

What are your thoughts on the above statement.

Cheese

2

Cheese,

The Pipins are likely frustrated. The costs of steel and wood building materials have in many cases, doubled and tripled, since the 1980s. Just to replace one mile of Class 5 track and ties, resurface the roadbed and replace ballast runs in the 6 to 7 figure digits, sad to say. Even if this railroad is using Class 3 track, the upgrade costs are painful.

Although a considerable amount of freight is being run on this road, it’s likely that profit margins are slim due to the escalating maintenance and insurance costs. Liability insurance for commercial transportation companies often staggers progress and expansion.

Remember too that some short line freight rail companies can get by with having 10 to 15 mph track as high speeds are often not a primary factor for delivering freight to their customers as is car availability and/or capacity.

Unless the line has greater potential for increased freight and tourism revenue, it’s unlikely that in this tight economy a business or individual with the financial means would want to invest in a transportation line line that doesn’t pose strong potential for economic growth and expansion and appears that will maintain the status quo.

Hopefully the owners will eventually be in a position to invest in rebuilding the lines.

Unless they get hit by some huge lawsuits or the FRA puts its foot on the owner’s throat it’s likely that the “patch up” jobs will continue.

Just my opinion. [;)]

3

Let’s hope so.

Have you, like I, ever wondered how well a tourist train and/or a railroad museum would do in Conway or Myrtle Beach? I think it would do reasonably well, but you never know.

Thanks for sharing.

I do want to add that my harsh words towards the owners (which I do feel sorry for, as they are very nice people) were not out of spite for them, but recent rude treatment by the operations staff. There is a new locomotive engineer and a new conductor, both of whom have been very rude on recent occasions.

For example, during Conways “Around the Forth” festival, people who have purchased tickets can ask for cabs rides. These are not classified as “Official Seats”, but its sort of a way for the railroad to be a good neighboor.

Well, I had a ticket and I asked if me and a friend could ride in the cab. No one had yet got on and I was very curtly told “I prefer to keep the seats open”. Well, afetr we had boarded and had taken our seats we saw the engineer load no less than 8 people on one locomotive and 5 in the other.

During past train rides, people could walk out onto platforms of the cars, provided the lower half of the doors are closed and the platforms the cover the stairs are down. There they would ride for a short time and then sit back down, or stay there for the whole time. I was out there, along with my friend and some other people when we were told by the conductor that the engineer saw us and radioed to him that he would stop the train if we were not seated in 5 minutes.

That is understandable, due to safety concearns, so we quickly did so, not wanting to be a nusance.

When the train was pulling up to the loading and unloading area, people began making their way to the doors so the could get off quicker. I was at the front of the line and stood in the doorway, when all of a sudden I heard the conductor say “You just can’t sit still can you?” I assumed that he was saying this in a joking manner and

4

Cheese,

I understand a bit where you’re coming from. Remember that a good number of railroaders that work on museum/tourist lines worked previously for Class 1s or short lines before. These guys will likely tell you that they’ve had teen boys throw rocks at their trains, lay debris on the tracks, vandalize equipment, curse at them, etc. So it’s possible that these gentlemen might have had an “abrasive” attiutude towards young men based on past experience. Is it fair? No [V]…but we’re all guilty of harboring prejudices.

Suggestion:

You stated your case well here. Write a letter to the management and explaing this situation almost exactly the way you’ve listed here on this thread, though be courteous and diplomatic. Let them know that you would enjoy visiting the railroad again as a railfan and would like to let the train crew know that your intentions are honorable.

[:D][tup]

5

Thanks,

That sounds like an excellent idea. I shall do that as soon as possible.

Cheese