Derailment happened at 12:02 this morning, and killed two trespassers who were "tweeting" photos from the adjacent rail overpass over Main Street earlier.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/pos ... ml?hpid=z3

But the station has no apparent or obvious damage so far.

I believe the term "close call" is a major understatement. If that train went the other way... I can only imagine that the wall facing the tracks might become one very large window. But this brings up a good question about stations along active ROW that have been converted for other uses; 1) is there enough room in the area where the platform stood for a freight car to derail and not damage the museum and 2) Is there some sort of contingency plan should a derailment damage or completely destroys the site? Would the railroad be liable to pay to rebuild in that situation, or would the organization or business be left with the bill, most likely to go belly up because of the costs involved?

If the museum sits on land owned or formerly owned by the railroad, there are probably agreements as part of the lease or sale to protect the railroad at others' expense. Of course, local law may decide how enforceable they are. If the railroad never owned the land, you may be their legal department's worst nightmare!

I was thinking exactly the same thing that horrible things would have happened to the depot had it happened on the near track instead. But then again, two people would still be alive today if that'd happened (we really need to keep that in mind). From the terrain, I would imagine a hopper rolling over, going through the top floor then going down the steep embankment (through the station) on it's way to the parking area at the bottom of the berm. I can't imagine much would be left had that happened.
If memory serves (I haven't been there since 1998), that the freighhouse in the photo and the station is a different building just out of view to the right of the building you see. The station is a really interesting structure, a split-level depot with access to the ground level. The road is just beyond the photo and the bridge starts just behind the building. It crosses the main drag through town (right past some neat antique shops that I liked going to), and it's a miracle nobody got killed on that road if loads or cars went off that side.

Lee, there has been some speculation that the derailment was caused by the train going into emergency in a last ditch attempt to avoid hitting the trespassers. Obviously, that's purely speculation at this time, but it is at least a possibility.

The article does mention Obviously, if that's the case, it's simply a tragic coincidence. On the other hand, early reports can often be incorrect.

My guess, based on aerial photos showing that the cars coupled to the 2 locomotives simply fell over on the inside of the curve, cars in the middle of the train jackknifed, and there isn't much separation between them, is that something derailed in the middle of the train, the next cars to the rear jackknifed in a pile there, and the front of the train, including the locomotives that could have still been pulling were jerked to a sudden stop and pulled off the inside of the curve before the emergency brake application could progress from the derailment to the locomotive throttle.

Jim, your theory may well prove to be correct.

That's why accident investigations take so long. Sometimes the "obvious" answer isn't the right one. In this example, the first reaction is "They saw the girls, plugged the air and the back of the train pushed the cars off".

After looking at the situation, they may determine you're correct, especially since the cars stringlined. So, what about the girls? Wrong place at the wrong time.

What does this have to do with preservation? Two things in my opinion.

First of all, as noted, it barely missed damaging or even demolishing the historic station. This is something that museums close to the tracks may want to consider. Also, it helps explain why sometimes the railroad says "You can have the depot, but you have to move it away from the tracks."

The second implication could be potential fallout for excursions and special events. If these two girls were clear of the tracks and the train came along and fell over on top of them (which seems to be the case as the investigation continues) then that's going to make CSX even less friendly to trespassers than they are now.

Will somebody in the legal department say "No, we don't want to attract people to the right of way, so let's not run that excursion..." I don't know the answer, but it's at least a possibility.

Lets be careful for the moment about the differentiating between what we know, what we believe, and what we surmise.

What we know is that the train derailed and two teenage girls were found dead in the wreckage. We know, based on the tweeted pictures (and a session with Bing) that they were sitting on the west side of a ballast deck bridge. We know from the tweeted pictures that they were barefoot. We also know, again from Bing, that, while the bridge is wide enough for a double track, the line is single track and that that track is also on the west side of the bridge. We know that the cars which derailed did so to the inside of the curve. We know that the cars (railroad) west (cardinal north) of the overpass went down an embankment into a parking lot. We know from the press release that the train was headed (railroad) east and therefor would have crossed the bridge before passing the station. We know that the two girls had no business being on that bridge in the first place. We know from the overheads that the bridge is just off center in an 'S' curve

We believe that they had been drinking because of the one tweet but we do not actually know that without the toxicology report. We believe that early news reports tend not to be perfectly accurate. We believe that what is meant by "walkway" in the reports is the former second track. We believe (or at least sincerely hope) that even a teenager would not have gone up there barefoot

Everything below here is surmise.

Question - When the bodies were recovered were they wearing their shoes?

The bodies being under the coal is consistent with the girls having tried to get out of the way of the train and crossed the track. (Look at the overheads, there was no room where they were sitting.) They might or might not have been struck. This will come from the autopsy.

The shoe question comes up simply because if they had time to put their shoes on there seems to be a slightly higher likelihood of them being in the clear on the far side of the track and I am more inclined to believe that there could have been an equipment problem. If they are still barefoot or partially barefoot then they were panicking to get out of the way.

My own theory, PURE SURMISE! is that the engineer saw the girls trying to get out of the way, did a really heavy service application (knowing he could not stop he still tried to give them a few more seconds) and having passed the point where he saw the girls decided to pull some of the slack out rather than bunch up in the middle of the 'S' curve. Either something was already off of the track or he simply pulled too hard too fast.

Tonight we simply do not know. When the tapes are reviewed and the autopsies are in we may.

Note: The "near track" in Brother Mitchell's picture is the turntable lead, not a CSX track. The building is the freight station and the passenger station is out of sight to the left. the turntable is between the two. The overpass is on the far side of the passenger station, also out of sight to the left and the track with the derailed cars is on the same side of the overpass that the girls were sitting on.

Two other slightly disconnected thoughts -

First, Did anybody else notice that one of the girls was a student at the University of Delaware? There were so many students killed on the CSX main down there that they have been running their own Stay Off the Track campaign with CSX.

Second, This is going to be an expensive mess to clean up no matter what the cause. Operation Lifesaver has been dealing with some significant financial issues for the last year due to a 'reallocation' of some federal safety funding. I suspect that the final cleanup cost will exceed the annual budget of OLI nationally and that of Maryland OL or possibly both combined. Hanging out on that bridge seems to be an ongoing problem. If this was the result of the girls' trespass, wouldn't a miniscule percentage of those funds having gone to OL generally and another miniscule percentage having gone into a trespass abatement program, including the overtime to write a handful of summonses, seemed a better investment?

GME

Added at 10:30 pm eastern:
Having carefully reread a couple of the news articles, the various permutations of the statements made by the spokespersons, and looked carefully at many of the photographs by both press and Twits? Tweeters? I have come to the conclusion that contrary to the news reports the girls could not possibly have been buried where they were sitting as: 1. the cars tipped the other way; 2. there seems to be no coal on the street under the west side of the bridge; and, 3, had the cars tipped toward the girls there was no space on the bridge and they would have landed on the road

[Edited to remove a a spelling error. GME]

There's nothing saying that the girls couldn't have crossed over the main to sit on the other (east) side of the bridge before the train came. The bodies were (reportedly) found on the eastern side of the bridge under the spilled coal, and frankly I'm left with some very realistic speculation that the bodies could indeed have been found at street level under coal, having suffered fatal trauma in a coal-induced fall. The local media (and believe me, I'm watching/reading it all) isn't giving us that level of detail, and frankly it's irrelevant anyway.

The "looking up the street" view posted on Twitter was definitely taken from the west side of the bridge, and the "levitating" Twitter photo, supposedly their last, I have no idea yet if it was taken on the west or east side (I can tell you once they'll let me closer and I can check where the one pavement marking is).

Consider that lawsuits may well hinge on autopsy results (toxicology, etc.), I would suggest that we reserve judgment on this non-preservation matter.

I speak for nobody but myself here (here I go again). I was a qualified engineer on the OML, and brought more than a few coal trains into Baltimore from Brunswick over this line. It appears from the news reports that the train was within the posted speed limit of 25 mph. The speed limit rises to 30 mph less than a mile East from the station area for a couple of miles, before dropping back to 25 mph at East Avalon, around Relay, where the Thomas Viaduct monument is.

I can tell you that 9K tons is not an extremely heavy coal train for this area, 10K is more common, and I've taken trains over it in the 18K range, needing helpers up the West side of the hill, cutting them off just past the tunnel at Mt. Airy. Typical power for such trains here is two big AC's, usually SD70AC's or AC4400's, or probably now the newer ES44AC's, with maybe an older SD40-2 or dash 3 thrown for more HP, but keeping total powered axles below the 24 powered axle limit for most trains on CSX.

The grade in the area around Ellicott City is fairly level and since the speed limit is consistant (barring any temporary speed restrictions) for a long distance before this area, the engineer of a train like this would easily be controlling his speed by throttle modulation, usually between the second and third notch. So there would not be any excessive dynamic forces at work in the train.

I can also tell you that seeing trespassers along the ROW in this area is fairly common, and there is no way I would throw down a train here unless I actually struck someone, just because jackknifing the train would be real possibility. Unless you absolutely know that your train is totally bunched or stretched, making an emergency application with a train with mixed-up slack is just asking for what happened here. The fact that the train initiated the emergency application would indicate it is possible that the train derailing caused the emergency application, not the other way around. It might also have been caused by hoses parting somewhere in the train, a not uncommon occurrence. We will not know that until after the NTSB investigation.

As for the station/museum being too close to the tracks, well, that is one reason railroads often require community or other groups acquiring their former structures to move them further back from the ROW. A lot of historic railroad structures have been lost just this way.

The Chester Foundation in Chester Mass aquired their 1840s depot from Conrail with the stipulation that it be moved. It was located on the inside of a downhill curve. Land was aquired directly across the tracks on the outside of the curve and the whole building was moved over the old B&A mainline. It's now one of the best places to watch trains, and it's safe. That old depot has survived 160+ years of mainline trains either climbing or braking nearby. It's amazing that it survived at all and it's made of wood!

Brian