Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX New River Sub At Mt. Carbon Status

Just checking on the status of last weeks derailment. Has the New River Sub been re opened yet at Mt. Carbon?

An interesting aerial view & update here:

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2015/02/23/Oil-removed-from-derailed-trains-in-West-Virginia/8051424699304/

- Denny

Per updates on this thread
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,3670449
Target date to reopen line is 3/1. Seems consistent with what I'm hearing as a customer.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/15 10:32 by scraphauler.

"About a dozen of the 28 cars on a CSX line that derailed near Mt. Carbon, W. Va., last week were carrying crude oil."

What? Would they been running the train only partially full? Or is this sloppy reporting?

A friend of mine went to the derailment site yesterday. Said 15-20 wrecked tank cars still haven't been moved.

Aside from rerouting oil trains on NS, CSX has also started to reroute some Newport News, VA bound coal trains on NS too.

Normally the railroads go a lightning speed to reopen any rail line. What is CSX doing here? Or are they playing a public relations game with everyone who is watching??

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Normally the railroads go a lightning speed to
> reopen any rail line. What is CSX doing here? Or
> are they playing a public relations game with
> everyone who is watching??

I was wondering the same thing. What other recent example can be cited with this length of delay? The Lac-Megantic explosion is one, but it was a light density line and a catastrophic accident.

Bad weather is hampering the cleanup progress.

I would guess that the oil has to be pumped out of the remaining cars. Possibly one car has to be pumped out and moved before they can pump out another. Throw in a healthy dose of nasty weather and that could take quite a while. Then, I am sure contaminated soil has to be removed and replaced. What really makes me wonder is, with the costs of the derailment and the lost revenue, it this traffic truly profitable?

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Normally the railroads go a lightning speed to
> reopen any rail line. What is CSX doing here? Or
> are they playing a public relations game with
> everyone who is watching??

To start with no cutting torches could be used or anything that would throw a spark to untangle the tankers.
Also all the remaining oil had to be pumped out of the derailed cars that did not catch fire and with these extreme temps one could imagine how fast the oil flows.
Also all the soil ballast has to be dug up and removed with new soil put in its place.
It's basically a huge mess to clean up.

Posted from iPhone

From what I have been able to learn the crude oil traffic is satisfactorily profitable. The traffic on this CSX line is somewhat unique. It is 80% coal or empties. If the receivers of the coal...domestic or export, have adequate reserves available then there is no rush to re-open the line. There is only one carload freight per day and it is usually 60 cars or so. That amount of traffic can easily be re-routed on other routes, as can the few grain or oil trains. There are no intermodal or vehicle trains. AMTK's Cardinal is affected, but this six car tri-weekly train can be bussed around. Any comment I would make about CSX and their perception of the Cardinal would not be positive.

So this is one line where they can take their time for a cleanup, and has already been pointed out by others, must have to because of the weather and dangerous nature of the cargo. I have not read every last comment of this accident, but did any of it actually get into the river? Many comments ago I think someone said maybe not. If that is the case, then they do not want to do anything clumsy where the oil would get in the river.

tp117 Wrote:
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> There are no
> intermodal or vehicle trains.

No, there's Portsmouth, VA to North Baltimore, OH westbound intermodal train Q135 which began using the C&O again back in October and then there is its eastbound counterpart, Q136.

There are random westbound baretable trains that use the C&O under the IDs of X115 and X116.

Also, there's a weekly Q122 that runs from Buckeye yard in Columbus, OH to Portsmouth, VA via the C&O.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/15 15:45 by Appalachianrails.

well 135/136 have run via DC and the B&O many times and that is their planned route after VA ave tunnel is fixed in DC. I've always thought the C&O route involved should be the preferred route for these trains but lost that argument here in the past. I did not know they had returned to the C&O. Anyway the re-route, and for the other occassional I/M trains is obvious.