Eastern Railroad Discussion > Engine Rollover in Concord, NH

In the Concord Monitor....



A train engine derailed and flipped on its side yesterday morning near Commercial Street in Concord, injuring one of the two people on board and spilling an estimated 100 gallons of diesel fuel, officials said.

As of yesterday afternoon, officials couldn't explain what caused the accident, which sent the train's owner, Peter Dearness of New England Southern Railroad, to Concord Hospital, where he remained in stable condition early yesterday evening.

Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said Dearness and the other man on board - who was serving as the engine's conductor - had been trying to clear snow from the tracks, which New England Southern Railroad leases from the state.

"They were breaking up snow to keep the track clear," Boynton said. He described the accident as a "low-speed incident."

The conductor escaped the accident uninjured, though he and Dearness were trapped when the engine derailed shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday.

The Concord Fire Department responded to calls from drivers on Interstate 93 who saw the train derail. The department sent all 20 of its on-duty firefighters to the accident, which happened near Brochu Nurseries on Commercial Street. Firefighters climbed a snow-covered ridge to retrieve the men from the engine, which had fallen into the snow beside the tracks.

While Dearness suffered head and leg injuries in the accident, he was able to climb out of the train when firefighters arrived, said fire Chief Dan Andrus.

Firefighters then lifted Dearness into an ambulance on a stretcher, Andrus said.

The conductor, who works for New England Southern Railroad, was also able to climb out of the train, Andrus said.

He told Andrus that he did not wish to speak to a reporter about the accident.

After helping free the men from the engine, firefighters focused on the diesel fuel leak, using absorbent pads to stop its spread, Andrus said.

The accident happened just south of the Merrimack River but caused "no apparent surface water impact," Boynton said. He said the Department of Environmental Services enlisted Enpro Services Inc., a Pembroke company, to help clean up the 100 gallons of fuel that had spilled from the engine's 400-gallon tank, which crews had drained by yesterday afternoon.

As for the engine, Boynton said the railroad company is working to right it as soon as possible but didn't know when that would happen. He said the company, which uses the line to carry products such as clay, lumber and steel to Tilton and Canterbury, doesn't usually run trains during the winter due to the cost of maintaining the tracks.

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Wow, that's a pretty dramatic roll-over. Glad the crew's okay, overall, but this just shows that snowplowing can be very hazardous duty, indeed.

GNR1938 Wrote:

> He said
> the company, which uses the line to carry products
> such as clay, lumber and steel to Tilton and
> Canterbury, doesn't usually run trains during the
> winter due to the cost of maintaining the tracks.

And now the cost to maintain the engine. Maybe they should stick to the practice that has worked for them in the past.

According to the video in this link, snowmobiles were the cause of the incident... http://www.wmur.com/r/26804082/detail.html

The accident occurred near the junction of the former B&M White Mountain branch (former Concord and Montreal), and the now abandoned Northern Division line to White River Junction, VT. The White Mtn branch is owned by the state and extends north to Lincoln, NH. The Clark family's Hobo and Winnipesaukee Scenic RRs use parts of it for seasonal excursion service, and a couple of dozen privately owned cabooses are parked at Tilton. After New Years each winter the ROW is turned over to snowmobile use until April, and it sees plenty of use! However, in past winters the NEGS has parked a hopper car on the Merrimack River bridge seen in the background to keep the snowmobilers from coming any further south. While NEGS has rights to provide freight service north of Concord, to my knowledge there are no regular customers. They have recently been embroiled in a dispute with Pan Am Railways, which wants to take back switching operations at a transloading yard in Concord.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/11 18:41 by DavidP.

How does a snowmobile make a diesel engine roll over?

VFPNSFAN Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How does a snowmobile make a diesel engine roll
> over?

Ice pack usually seen at grade crossing NYSW lost 2 c430's to just that a few years back. The snowmobiles travel the same path over and over could create enough pack.

I think they missed by 3600 gallons on the size of it's fuel tank.
JB