While not young in years, I am relatively young as a railfan, and very young as to events in the East, as I live on the left coast.I've tried Google in several ways to find out more about this wreck mentioned in a thread below, but no luck.Can some of you Easterners help me out?Thanks!Scott

I remember someone posting the following "ICC Special Collections" link on a trainorders website discussion recently.Here is that link followed by the northeast.railfan,net link that directed me to it.This should be a good starting place to answer your question about that sad NS Dismal Swamp steam train derailment: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.ne ... ports.html

OK I FOUND a small writeup about this May 18, 1986 Dismal derailment in this article about coupler safety at the Trains Magazine website: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/A ... spEvidence of the value of Type H couplers was provided in the May 18, 1986, derailment of a Norfolk Southern steam excursion train in the Great Dismal Swamp near Suffolk, Va. The train had 23 cars, all equipped with tight-locks except for three older ex-Southern heavyweight cars, two of which jackknifed. Most of the 18 people who were seriously injured were riding in those two cars.The accident sent a shock wave throughout the recreational railroad industry and led passenger excursion operators to adopt the Type H coupler as standard. All cars on Amtrak's roster are equipped with tight-lock couplers, and the company requires such couplers on all privately owned passenger cars the company hauls. This requirement has led most active owners of older, non-streamlined cars to install Type H's; others have removed their cars from mainline activity.Research into coupler improvements falls to the AAR and the Railway Progress Institute and their joint committee on couplers. Other than the Type E bottom-shelf, most recent improvements have not been dramatic, but rather focused on improvements in metallurgy, repair techniques, and the manufacturing process.

I found another short summary at this website by using the Vivisimo meta-search engine:http://www.ironwoodtech.com/library/ntsb.htmDerailment of Steam Excursion Train Norfolk and Western Railway Company Train Extra 611 West, Suffolk, Virginia, May 18, 1986Cause: The failure of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company (N&W) to train its Maintenance of Way Department employees adequately in the inspection and repair of continuous welded rail, and the failure of the Maintenance-of-Way Department management to monitor the implementation of the N&W’s maintenance-of-way practices by its employees. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the N&W’s decision to use equipment without tightlock couplers and passenger cars with modified interiors having severe injury-producing mechanisms.