Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS derailment in Riverton Jct, Front Royal VA

Heard M6T derailed about 6-10 cars in Riverton Jct.  Headend is north of Shenandoah River bridge and no 
cars were derailed on the bridge.  M6T is extra 16T northbound merchandise coming up H Line from Roanoke.
No hazmats or injuries, but I have not heard much else

hollywood
NS B Line MP 74

My daughter had a dental appt this afternoon in Front Royal today so I took a look-see.  From the neighborhood above Riverton Jct, I was lucky that a resident invited me to take pictures from his backyard.  It looked to me like nothing obvious was fouling the connection to the B-line (the remaining train north of the derailment had already been moved) so I imagine the B-line may be able to reopen relatively soon...  I wouldn't be surprised to see at least this evening's 201 and tomorrow's 202 reroute via Manassas and Lynchburg.

Image 1:  M6T was travelling north up the ex-N&W Shenandoah Valley line and the derailed cars are just south of the bridge over the North Fork of Shenandoah River.  The line bisecting the Valley line is the ex-Southern B-line (not currently active west of Riverton Junction).  The upper right-most line is the connection from the Valley line to the B-line.  

Image 2: The line in the foreground is the seldom used connection from the B-line to go south on the Shenandoah Valley line. No regularly scheduled trains use this route although it is occasionally used by MoW trains. During the 21st Century steam program, this leg of the wye was used when turning the 611’s train. 

Image 3: Closeup derailment pic

Steve Gass
B-lineRailfan.Com
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/21 20:23 by B-LineRailfan.

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B-line railfan, thanks for posting the information & pictures.
 

I hope the shareholders are OK.

Is this the THIRD train dynamics derailment in the past few months on the H line between Luray and Charles Town ????

Posted from Android

mp208 Wrote:
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> Is this the THIRD train dynamics derailment in the
> past few months on the H line between Luray and
> Charles Town ????

It's ok if one comes off the tracks, that's just the price of doing bizNS under the mantra of "full pin" longer heavier trains with fewer engines & fewer people.
The only thing that matters is shareholder value & getting the O.R. down.
Running trains safely isn't even secondary to developng apps, technology, & making the stock price go up.
They think their calculated risks are worth it, physics be damned.

What say you Ms. Sanborn?

Finding it interesting that the cars fell to the outside of the curve.   Somewhat odd, and those are fairly heavy loads of what looks like paper rolls and steel plate.

DPU's in the train still pushing from the rear?

That's pretty much what happened up in NY due to incompatible communication systems but anything is possible.

Aerial view taken 12 years ago.   .

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I'm just hearing that there was a fatality with one of the cleanup crew members. Very sad news.

Another reminder that railroading is a dangerous business.

That's a fine picture, cinder. Gives some perspective

NS is having too many accidents.  The FRA or DOT should launch an examination of NS practices.  Looks like that train could have wiped out a major bridge or went into the river.  

randgust Wrote:

>
> DPU's in the train still pushing from the rear?
>

Yes - the mid-train DPUs were behind the derailment.

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