Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS is closed for two months?

I was told today that NS thru East Palestine is now closed for possibly two months, so that all the track laid after the derailment can be removed and the fill dirt, soil, ballast, etc. is removed and trucked out to a landfill.  All the subsoil is deemed polluted and EPA is demanding its total removal.  A new track, ties, etc. will be built upon new fill, ballast, etc.   

NS will go back to rerouting trains on the Bayard Sub as well as thru Ashtabula-Youngstown for higher clearance cars.  

Has anyone here posted a rail map so we can see where East Palestine is located on the NS system map in relation to routing? Is this the "Fort Wayne Line"?

Victor Baird

Yes.  The Fort Wayne line.  On the OH/PA border.  Alliance, OH to Conway, PA is the former PRR mainline, and is a very busy NS route.  

There is a little bit about track removal on the NS site 

Site Progress

NS System Map

On the image I circled East Palestine. The Bayard District is the railway running south of East Palestine. The Youngstown Line is the railway to the Northeast.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/23 18:51 by tq-07fan.

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Per the NTSB ...

"On February 3, 2023, about 8:54 p.m. local time, eastbound Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) general merchandise freight train 32N derailed 38 railcars on main track 1 of the NS Fort Wayne Line of the Keystone Division in East Palestine, Ohio."

The first image shows the approximate location of East Palistine on the NS map.

The second image may be of interest to you. It was posted by WLFI Lafayette, Indiana.
https://www.wlfi.com/news/derailed-train-in-east-palestine-may-have-passed-through-lafayette/article_9d987780-b48d-11ed-9dbf-5b2a6e159036.html

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What about Amtrak 29&30 Trains?? for 2 Months??

Considering there are trains running out there right now I'd say it's still pretty open.

Posted from Android

Supposedly they will keep one of the tracks open while the conttaminated soil is being removed and mostly the intermodals will continue using the line.

What is , "conttaminated soil" I'm guesseing nothing I want to plant my Tomatoes in? 
Gonut

rgzfan Wrote:
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> Great opportunity to build a trench with
> overpasses...

That's a thought.

I hope someone can get pictures. Maybe a drone operator can do that. If NS excavates the roadbed deeply one track at a time, I am curious what it will have to do to temporarily shore up the other track.

 

Ironically the Amtrak #30, the eastbound Capitol Ltd,  passed through E Palestine around 0345 Thursday morning 3/2/23 toting the FRA's faux Pennsy "Office of Safety" car DOTX 221. And #30 was OT!

Also NS ran at least 3 eastbound east coast-bound double stacked IM trains through Elkhart overnight 3/1 - 3/2/23 which I'm guessing were not re-routed around E Palestine.

PS: interestingly, #30 hauled DOTX 221 through the area about a year ago on 3/8/22



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/23 02:17 by JPB.

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HAS AMTRAK and NS trains operated at low speed through the wreckage area for safety, as well as to minimize drafting of soil (aka, speading of contamidated dust) within the wreckage area?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/23 05:35 by rrman6.

Well it is not completely closed as both Amtrak #29 and #30 both passed thru East Palestine last night.  My guess its NS will remove one track at a time to remove contaminated materials, leaving one track open.  I am thinking all the reroutes stated by MEKoch are going to occur to allow for more uninterrupted time to work on the closure.  If NS didn't do this, the combination of a single track bottleneck and reduced speed thru the work area would result in the work crews having to stop constantly to allow a train to pass.

MEKoch Wrote:
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> I was told today that NS thru East Palestine is
> now closed for possibly two months, so that all
> the track laid after the derailment can be removed
> and the fill dirt, soil, ballast, etc. is removed
> and trucked out to a landfill.  All the subsoil
> is deemed polluted and EPA is demanding its total
> removal.  A new track, ties, etc. will be built
> upon new fill, ballast, etc.   
>
> NS will go back to rerouting trains on the Bayard
> Sub as well as thru Ashtabula-Youngstown for
> higher clearance cars.  

Can Youungstown Line and Bayard handle 20'2" stacks?

Posted from Android

From what I was told, the Cleveland Line between Alliance and Rochester ("Bayard Branch") has height restrictions, meaning no stacks or autoracks.  Currently, all intermodal trains plus 10Q, 11Q, and 148 will continue to run through East Palestine.  11N and 16G will run via Youngstown and Ashtabula.  12N, 13N, 14N, 15N, 17Q, 170, 171, 32N, and 35N will run via Bayard.

Andrew

Problems with running through via Bayard too is the amount of crews qualified to run on that line, as I believe there is not that many due to the amount of trains running on it right now. 

Marc L

Tracks are widely spread thru E Palestine so maybe no need for retaining wall.  Where are the nearest universal crossovers east and west of E Palestine? How long in distance will the single tracking be?

They could easily excavate one track at a time with the distance between mains.   The contaminants should not have gone too far down into the ground i.e probably less than 20 feet.

I would think they should be able to complete the work within a week for each main.  Cut the track, move it to the side, dig and stockpile on site or move out by truck and backfill with clean fill, move track back into place. 

There is a wide gap between both tracks. 
Looks like there may been three tracks at one time. PRR?

CPMorris Wrote:
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> There is a wide gap between both tracks. 
> Looks like there may been three tracks at one
> time. PRR?

Four

Posted from iPhone