Eastern Railroad Discussion > Anacostia CSX Derailment

I just heard on CNN that five cars of a CSX freight went off the bridge, into the Anacostia river in Washington, DC.

It's on CNN right now.

I hear those two words being used together all the time:

CSX derailment


Truly they are the modern-day Penn Central

-HRH

Don't berate Penn Central that way...

Wasn't this the bridge that was closed a while back?

saw it on FOX a minute ago, coal cars in the water.

Chico
http://www.heartlandrails.com

The Anacostia River Bridge was closed for nearly a month last November due to structural problems. Very irnoic that this would happen exactly a year later.

Kevin

CIOR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't berate Penn Central that way...
LOL!

Here are some links with plenty of pictures.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1107/471328.html

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=65068

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4887017&version=7&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

One report says it was a "run away". Another says it was a "yard shoving move". Maybe it was an RCO?

Hey, is that a new one for an RCO knocking out a bridge?

I heard on the VRFE Yahoo Groups, that the coal train had came in to Benning Yard, cut the power from the train and apparently the crew forgot to tie the train down and it rolled away. 24 cars made it across, 5 or so dumped into the river, and a few more scatterd on the bridge. Rails are torn up and some considerable bridge damage, of course.

Kevin

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One report says it was a "run away". Another says
> it was a "yard shoving move". Maybe it was an
> RCO?
>
> Hey, is that a new one for an RCO knocking out a
> bridge?


One of the biggest problems with today's culture of "instant news" is that it includes instant speculation about accident causes long before all the facts are known. Competitive pressure pushes even those who would prefer to avoid such speculation to dabble in it or risk not being "first with the story".

Edited to add: If what NS212 posted is true, though, then "runaway" could be the real explanation, and "yard shoving move" could be the cover-your-butt explanation. I must concede, the pictures suggest that the cars involved in the wreck were travelling westbound when they piled up, which belies a "yard shoving move" unless it was from the far end of Benning and it "got away".

VRFE info was not from a news source. ;-)

Small details to add, the tracks through Benning Yard run North-South, until they get to Tanglewood on the Alexandria Extensions (Apex of JD Wye) where it goes to East-West Running.

Benning Yard does not use RCO's.

The train in question was getting tied down in the yard, and not part of a yard shove.

Here is channel 4 news coverage.

http://video.nbc4.com/player/?id=182967

Some of the news photos show what appear to be structural beams in the water beneath one of the cars. Maybe the bridge failed. Let's see what the official word is.

MakeChooChooGoNow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hear those two words being used together all the
> time:
>
> CSX derailment
>
>
> Truly they are the modern-day Penn Central
>
> -HRH

NS just had 3 derailments in Indiana and Ohio in the last two weeks, Two on the same day. Yet no one made any smart comments.

90 cars began to roll out of Benning and across the bridge on the out of service track (only one track was back in service from last years bridge repairs.) About 20-25 cars made it across with no problem, fortunately the derailment stopped the southward movement of what could have been a real downtown disaster. I believe the cars would have rolled through Virginia Ave Tunnel but you can't tell me those loads would have made the turns down around L'Enfant Plaza without derailing.

I don't know if the grade inside the tunnel would have been enough to stop them in the tunnel or not. I also do not know what stopped the 25 or so cars that made it across without derailing.

PJ

Any info on reroutes on NS H-Line like last year?
holiwood
NS B-Line MP 74

puddlejumper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 90 cars began to roll out of Benning and across
> the bridge on the out of service track (only one
> track was back in service from last years bridge
> repairs.) About 20-25 cars made it across with no
> problem, fortunately the derailment stopped the
> southward movement of what could have been a real
> downtown disaster. I believe the cars would have
> rolled through Virginia Ave Tunnel but you can't
> tell me those loads would have made the turns down
> around L'Enfant Plaza without derailing.
>
> I don't know if the grade inside the tunnel would
> have been enough to stop them in the tunnel or
> not. I also do not know what stopped the 25 or so
> cars that made it across without derailing.
>
> PJ
The crew was probably having a safety meeting reviewing their MANDATORY DIRECTIVE. Come on, is robot railroading better than common sense and thorough training as in working up through the jobs??
Tommy

Q173/Q174 will be rerouted over NS via the same route as last year (H-Line, B-Line)..starting tomorrow.

don't believe it was the out of service track

Sounds like the crew was not a Benning crew, the train having come north from AACA. May have rolled away while the power was being cut off and run to the south end to apply handbrakes, don't know.

Hope they all have BRCF or LE&CMPA