Wow: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimor ... t/26839449



I don't think anyone was hurt, but wow.

PRELIMINARY And UNOFFICIAL Update:

Damage to the Streetcar Museum is limited to severe damage to the Museum's electrical substation building (the "shed" seen crushed under the red RR car) and some damage to the overhead streetcar power lines and possible track damage (either from the derailment, or to come from removal efforts). In addition, an adjacent power pole with multiple transformers has been toppled, with the transformers smashed.

There is NO apparent damage to the car barn, Visitors Center, or the overhead-line-maintenance "line car" PCC stored outside.

Updates being posted at the Baltimore Chapter NRHS's Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreNRHS/

Speculation here: At least seven empty lumber racks on a curve. A textbook stringlining? The cause of the derailment or the result?

This spot is very near the steepest part of the Beltline. I'd want to know 1) was it Eastbound (uphill) or Westbound (downhill)? 2) If it was heading uphill, did it have helpers on the rear? The beltline is a helper area, usually just for coal trains, but since CSX started running massive trains it's possible any heavy train could have them. There are specific rules for shoving on the beltline, like limiting shoving power until the rear of the train is in the Howard St. tunnel, sometimes ignored by crews in a hurry to get it done. When I shoved trains through there I was very cautious about how hard I shoved. Pretty much just enough power to keep it moving about 15 mph, and backing off as soon as I saw the speed of the train start picking up East of Huntington Av. I'd want to hear the results of the event recorder download.

UPDATE:

Various Baltimore Streetcar Museum officials are probably off buying lottery tickets as I type.

The flat car that landed atop the substation was removed off the building in the wee hours of this morning.

BSM Operations staff were able to examine the shattered cinder-block shed and, more importantly, its electrical components this afternoon.

The preliminary assessment: The substation electrical equipment is intact and functional, in need of no/minor repair.

There are still issues regarding paying for repairs to/replacement of the building and overhead, but Museum volunteers plan to assemble tomorrow (Sunday the 17th) to temporarily repair and secure the building and its contents (and the overhead wire) against weather and vandalism/theft.

No, it won't be painted green, but a little "luck o' the Irish" may be with them yet.

Photo: Baltimore Streetcar Museum

Correction: six centerbeam flats, one tank, and two gons.

As for speculation, All I can say is that 1) the train (northbound/uphill, headed from North Carolina to NY State) came up to Baltimore with ONE ES44CW on the point and a radio-controlled DPU (Distributed Power Unit) ES44CW two-thirds to three-quarters of the way back (Photo proof of that while approaching Baltimore); and 2) reportedly had two locos added to the head end at Mt. Winans Yard in South Baltimore before approaching the Howard Street Tunnel.

The grade in the tunnel is 0.8%. The grade through multiple curves between the north end of the Tunnel and the summit at the Huntingdon Avenue interlocking about 2 miles uphill is listed in several sources I have here as 1.55%--compensated or uncompensated, I can't say.

DPU operations over the CSX ex-B&O lines from D.C. to Philly began approximately one month ago or less, according to Facebook posts from relevant FB groups covering the CSX divisions in question that I follow.

That's all I'm going to say on the matter.

Update:

I just spoke with the Vice President-Operations of the Museum.

He said "CSX has been very nice to work with and has promised to do whatever it takes to get us up and running as soon as possible."

Unbelieveable that the equipment inside the building seems to have escaped relatively unscathed, given what has fallen on it from a great height! Hopefully they will (literally) be "up and running" again fairly soon.

In case anyone wonders what the building looked like pre-impact, It's visible on the left hand side of this photo that I took in 2011.........

I can tell you for sure that 0.8% is the steepest grade on the Baltimore Beltline. The employee timetable does not show any of it as being subject to FRA rules for grades of 1% or more. The only grade of at least 1% I know of in the territory I covered out of Baltimore was Barnesville Hill, around the Monocacy River bridge on the Metropolitan Sub at 1.1%. I'm fairly certain that none of the Beltline grade was compensated, which might be why it seems to be steeper around the museum than it really is. If a train is going to stall on the Beltline, it usually stalls around the last curve before Huntingdon Av.

Hmmmmmm.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I have several rather "authoritative" sources here claiming either 1.5% or 1.55% between the north end of the Mt. Royal Station platform and Huntingdon Avenue. Not railfan gossip, but track charts and historians like Herb Harwood.

There exist some possibilities:
B&O/Chessie somehow modified the grade over the years;
Those sources were in error;
CSX is somehow "ignoring" the grade or erroneously failed to include it in their lists;
There's been some "monkeying" with the track charts.

I have personally handled charts from the PRR where they went from a 1923 detailed analysis of the grade on a three-mile "hill" to a 1966 straight lines from the bottom to the top designating the whole thing as 1.6% "ruling grade" both ways when only a short stretch on either side was actually 1.6% according to the old charts.

If I'm to believe my measurements with Google Earth Pro and my math, allowing for a bit of fudge factors, the grade from Mt. Royal to the siding switch at Huntingdon Avenue in raw numbers is 1.15%; if someone wants me to calculate compensation on those curves, I'm sure I'll come up with the equivalent of 1.5-1.6%. The grade from Hunt Ave to the absolute summit between Greenmount and Loch Raven is about 0.7-0.8%.

Now, which box are my B&O ETTs in..........?

Ouch! Talk about bad luck. That's all I can really say on the matter.

The BSM power station may be a historic building in its own right. It was built in 1970 or 71 when I was a member there. Several of us worked on putting up the overhead and ran the first car under wire at the museum. It seems like a thousand years ago and yesterday.

The BSM power station may be a historic building in its own right. It was built in 1970 or 71 when I was a member there. Several of us worked on putting up the overhead and ran the first car under wire at the museum. It seems like a thousand years ago and yesterday.

The photo in the lead post on this topic shows the tank car appears to have a "joint" with the center-beam car, even though the joint is suspended several feet of the ground the air
. Would this be evidence of a "shelf"-style (correct term?) coupler, on the tank, doing one of its jobs?

Regards,
Bob Milhaupt

Update:

BSM Visitors Center and Carbarn reopen this Sunday (the 24th) with electric power for public and private events, without operating streetcars for the moment. Best estimate for electric car operation is about two months from now.

One wag suggested pulling out one of the two horsecars for operation, but they can't find period-authentic horses........

(More seriously, both are bodies only, one still mounted on its rubber-tired parade-vehicle chassis applied by Baltimore Transit or predecessors for parade use.)