Eastern Railroad Discussion > 12G derailment East of Horseshoe Curve Altoona.

An Eastbound NS 12G derailed 64 cars East of Horseshoe Curve in Altoona early this morning.

Cars reported on the ground, leaning but upright.

Broken coupler was reported near the DPU.

Mains 2 and 3 reported blocked.

Main 1 reported open for traffic as of now.

C58 helper brought the rear 2800 feet of 12G up to Cresson to park it on Main-8 (the old 0 track)

Eastbound 28X was over the top of the mountain Eastbound on Track 1 at 8AM to head down past the derailment.

Dave W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/26 05:37 by dwi189.

Sounds like it was a 224 car manifest. Wouldn't be surprised if the DP lost comm coming down the hill. Too soon to blame PSR?

Posted from Android

I found it a little confusing, they kept repeating 64 cars, lines 142-206 on the wheel report, but that would be 65 cars. 64, 65, a bit unusual either way. Unusual too that they all stayed together that long until something eventually got the air.
Saying it was a 28,000 ton train.
Could have been much worse, barely cleared 13V moving west on main two.
Back in the nineties, Conrail put 70 cars of a PIBA on the ground between Tyrone and Spruce Creek.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/26 06:33 by onblock.

The previous day's 12G also had problems....went into emergency in the Allegheny Tunnel at Gallitzin....Engineer put on first service air....but the DPU put full service on, stopping the train with the rear few cars and rear helpers outside the West portal of the tunnel...

Dave W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/26 06:27 by dwi189.

Change of plans with the rear portion of the 12G....instead of parking it at Cresson, they decided to reverse at Cresson after running the power around it and take that portion back down to Altoona .

Dave W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/26 06:47 by dwi189.

Running a 224 car train through the mountains? What could go wrong?

Posted from Android

I guess it happened a mile or two east of the Curve and is inaccessible for media photos until someone puts up a drone.  The only pictures I can find in the media showed three photos of hi rail trucks at what looked like the Brickyard crossing.

stevelv Wrote:
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> I guess it happened a mile or two east of the
> Curve and is inaccessible for media photos until
> someone puts up a drone.  The only pictures I can
> find in the media showed three photos of hi rail
> trucks at what looked like the Brickyard crossing.

It is indeed in wooded territory between the Brickyard and the Curve.

I have seen a couple of drone pics on Facebook....some leaners but nothing laying over.

Dave W.

They are moving traffic ....Crossing traffic over at CP-ALTOONA and at MG.

Single track railroad (Track 1) between Altoona and MG to get around the derailment site with Tracks 2 and 3 out of service between CP-ALTOONA and MG.

Dave W



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/26 08:45 by dwi189.

The FRA should investigate and fine NS for operating 224 car trains on Horseshoe curve.  Absolute stupidity by the NS managment.  And dangerous for crew and the public.  

MEKoch Wrote:
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> The FRA should investigate and fine NS for
> operating 224 car trains on Horseshoe curve. 
> Absolute stupidity by the NS managment.  And
> dangerous for crew and the public.  

Stupid, yes ... but exactly what CFR would they be in violation of?

This industry needs to stop operating under the fallacy that DPU is an infallible technology. Too often, the answer to "that's not a good idea" ... especially in frigid temperatures ... is "just DPU the train."

Posted from Android

If we have another Carrington Event from the sun, potentially in addition to shutting down the grid, satellite, GPS, phone commutation could shut down or go haywire. Hopefully, RRs will be smart enough to shut the trains down before bad things happen. We had few sunspots lately.

Victor Baird

Monster manifests, double coal trains, etc. have been running this line for quite awhile now. It is nothing new....

It has been entertaining to be part of/observe traffic being ran with only one track open. You can't make this stuff up.

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> Running a 224 car train through the mountains?
> What could go wrong?
>
> Posted from Android
We do it all the time up north on BNSF.... they do break at times though... especially Coals

           They run the 224 car trains for the simple reason that someone ran a 223 car train last week and they want to be the poster child for saving the entire railroad's financial situation by 'doing more with less'. And next week someone will add another car to the count to be the new hero.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/26 06:13 by dcfbalcoS1.