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Last Thursday morning, May 1st, a south bound CSX coal drag on its way to a power plant in Southern Maryland hit a washout near US Rt 50 in Bowie, MD.  All three locomotives and ten cars were derailed.  This is about a mile from the house, so when I heard the news, I arranged for the afternoon off and after some investigation, found the wreck site and spent the weekend watching from a distance and looking over the resulting damage.  So just a couple of photos to share.  The crew was not injured, although it looks like the engineer got lucky.

 

The wreck location wasn't very accessible.  I didn't venture closer at the request of some workers.

  

DSC_4111

 

IMG_1865

 

The trailing unit after it was back on the rails and moved to a location where it was worked on.

 

IMG_1879

 The lead unit, with a rail impaled into the cab.  A local train crew working locomotives brought up to move these units around said the rail penetrated to the real cab bulkhead.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

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Images (3)
  • DSC_4111: The wreck location wasn't very accessible.  I didn't venture closer at the request of some workers.
  • IMG_1865: The trailing unit after it was back on the rails and moved to a location where it was worked on.
  • IMG_1879: The lead unit, with a rail impaled into the cab.  A local train crew working locomotives brought up to move these units around said the rail penetrated to the real cab bulkhead.
Last edited by bbunge
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These washout derailments make me think that the railroads should take greater care to inspect their right of way after heavy rains.  The cost of the clean up and repair/replacement of equipment must surely be more expensive then the extra cost of the inspections before disaster hits.

 

Stuart

 

Thanks for posting. I wanted to see the scene but figured it would be difficult to access.

 

Was it heading North or South? If it was going south I figured it would be difficult to reach the engines with the heavy lift wreckers.

 

Do you think the heavy rain caused a washout?

 

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam:

Thanks for posting. I wanted to see the scene but figured it would be difficult to access.

 

Was it heading North or South? If it was going south I figured it would be difficult to reach the engines with the heavy lift wreckers.

 

Do you think the heavy rain caused a washout?

 

Sam

 

The train was heading south.  For Chalk Point or Morgantown, I don't know.  The actual site was very inaccessible.  The water in the photo is a pond/swamp on the west side of the road.  The Collington Branch stream is on the east side of the road.  The washout was apparently at the location of a culvert under the track.  When I was there, there were beaver swimming in the pond and a CSX person asked me "do you have a beaver problem around here."  (I answered yes).   We had had about 4-inches of rain in about 36 hours.   CSX built a gravel road across someone's lawn to get to the site.  Washington Gas was also on site, as there is a gas line along the ROW.  There were two environmental companies on site and three ladies from Tri-State Bird Rescue out of Delaware who said they were on retainer from CSX to monitor the wildlife.  RJ Corman had heavy equipment on site in less than eight hours.  Portable johns, cleaning stations, generator and lights, etc..  A very impressive piece of work.  I understand a south bound drag went through this afternoon.    The locomotives had to have two couplers replaced and one wheel had to be changed out before they could be moved to Benning yard.

 

Bob

 

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