Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Derailment

Thanks for sharing that news with the Forum. Pittsburgh is my hometown area, so anything that affects it are of interest to me.

FrankM

Moonson posted:

Thanks for sharing that news with the Forum. Pittsburgh is my hometown area, so anything that affects it are of interest to me.

FrankM

It’s honestly emotional to see. I saw one engine was #4000. Didn’t catch the other two. It was a westbound intermodal train.

My wife and I live near Philly and came out for a few days. Didn’t expect to see something like this moments after it happened!

 Wow !! A big one !! That is the area where there was a bad slide about 2 yrs ago. They want to raise clearances through Pgh to avoid this line.

My old stomping grounds (Fox Chapel, Etna, Sharpsburgh) back in the day.  Would watch trains pass "on the hillside" around Station Square.  They moved slow so wouldn't expect them to fall down the hill. 

Going to disrupt trolley (er called light rail now I guess) if its near where the Wabash (Mt Washington if I recall it) tunnel is up to South Hills Junction.  Of course they can substitute buses to run around blocked tracks.

Heres the Pittsburgh KDKA report watch very beginning to see cars slide down as well as noise:

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.co...ment-station-square/

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF DERAILMENT TAKEN SUNDAY EVENING NEAR PITTSBURGH PORT AUTHORITY STATION SQUARE SUBWAY STATION ON CARSON STREET NEAR ARLINGTON AVENUE .......

That is just across the river from the city of Pittsburgh, PA.  It is on the MON line which runs north and south.   I can't tell what direction they were going but NS ran double stacks thru the South Side (as that area is called) because they can't run them thru the other side of the city, via the  old PENNSYLVANIA station,  as they don't have enough clearance.  I used to work for NS as a conductor and took many trains thru that section of town on our way to Altoona.

Rick

RICKC posted:

That is just across the river from the city of Pittsburgh, PA.  It is on the MON line which runs north and south.   I can't tell what direction they were going but NS ran double stacks thru the South Side (as that area is called) because they can't run them thru the other side of the city, via the  old PENNSYLVANIA station,  as they don't have enough clearance.  I used to work for NS as a conductor and took many trains thru that section of town on our way to Altoona.

Rick

Very interesting! It was a westbound train. I read somewhere it was en route to Chicago.

Prayers that none of my fellow brothers/sisters or public were hurt.

I wonder if there was a "Light Show" when the container hit the trolley wire!

My son has an internship with NS in Conway this summer. He lives near this derailment. I'm sure I'll head more about it today...

Ken

SCARY - hopefully, NO serious injuries!

This derailment made the news on radio all the way to Chicago - when I heard it, thought "just routine derailment", but this does look like a tricky one for the pros to clean up.

I'm also very familiar with that area.  Have they determined what caused the derailment, yet?

Bill

One track open as of Wed morning. They say NS has trains backed up so it will be busy today and tomorrow.  Back in the days of steam, a K4 derailed near that spot and the engine came down the hill. I think the engineer was killed. They had hit a rock slide. I wish they would send some trains on the Lurgan.

A member of our Tuesday evenings train group was presumably one of the first wreck clean-up guys on the scene since he works for RJ Corman and is engaged in this type of activity on a far-too-regular basis. He also  lives in Pittsburgh not far from the wreck scene. I saw an RJ Corman crane in one of the news films, so I assume Rob has been putting in long hours in the clean-up effort. He was not at our get-together last night.

jim pastorius posted:

One track open as of Wed morning. They say NS has trains backed up so it will be busy today and tomorrow.  Back in the days of steam, a K4 derailed near that spot and the engine came down the hill. I think the engineer was killed. They had hit a rock slide. I wish they would send some trains on the Lurgan.

Interesting.  And reflective of the historical myopia many folks have:  the reports I've seen all seem to say this event is unprecedented.

They have been having trouble unstacking these stack cars, given the precariousness of their resting places, and the topography involved. One of them broke open its doors during the process and lost its entire load to gravity; video here.

Allan Miller posted:

A member of our Tuesday evenings train group was presumably one of the first wreck clean-up guys on the scene since he works for RJ Corman and is engaged in this type of activity on a far-too-regular basis. 

Derailments are happening all the time, apparently. Part of railroading, it seems. I was at a wreck site a number of years ago (not nearly as spectacular as this one!) and talked to one of the cleanup crew. He worked for a company that contracts with the UP to work on derailments, and they were working this job. Their company worked in something like an 8-state area, and he said they were on the road all the time, and there are derailments all the time. Most never make the news. There are a number of companies around the country that do this contract work for railroads. 

I have never seen a RR car throw up before, but that's the only way I can describe that container loosing its lunch . . .  uh, cargo 

There continues to be lots of reporting on this derailment and its cleanup efforts but I still haven't seen or heard WHAT CAUSED THE DERAILMENT!  Did I miss it or has it not yet been announced?  Early on they ruled out mudslides or rockslides. 

Bill (Pittsburgh Native)

WftTrains posted:

There continues to be lots of reporting on this derailment and its cleanup efforts but I still haven't seen or heard WHAT CAUSED THE DERAILMENT!  Did I miss it or has it not yet been announced?  Early on they ruled out mudslides or rockslides. 

Bill (Pittsburgh Native)

According to the news media, "It jumped the tracks!".

We can’t get any steel out of mon valley. If it wasn’t at Conway before the accident we won’t be receiving it any time soon.