CSX Q-620 derailment in Central Square - 11/19

I'm suprised that no one mentioned this, I only found out this morning.
Saturday around 2:30 pm the southbound Q-620 nee CN/SE put 28
cars on the ground as the train was exiting the village of Central Square.
Some hazmat issues, rt 11 still closed this afternoon as clean up continues. This is really all I know. Please add details.

__STEAM__ON__
/--OOO--~-oo--oo-

Good photos of the wreck are here:

http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.a ... B8BF82C3E4

-otto-

Interesting find. The rear loco in the pics CN 5542 was involved in a
derailment in AB in 1999. I found this on Google. Maybe that unit is cursed. I like how those couplers held and the drawbar pocket twisted like
a pretzel. How about those tankers stacked neatly like cord wood. Track speed through there is 40 mph I believe. I wonder if the Rt 11 bridge
is damaged?
*
/--OOO--~-oo--oo- *
*
________________________STEAM_ON____________________________

I wonder if the defect was rail related? I heard this train go threw the Detector North of Watertown and it was all clear. Track speed is 40mph in the area with restrictions on curves being 30-35mph if I rember it right. Last time I inspected this trrack with Sperry Rail Service was in Ocotber/November 2000. we found that the rail is recycled reused rail full of shattered hair line cracks its still safe to use as long as its at a safe slow speed. But it requires a lot of attention. CSX has inspections done on that line every 3 months by Sperry or Hasco to keep an eye on things.

That would be the 4th time Q620 has derailed in the past three years. First was Summer 2003 in Adams, NY, second and third derailments were in the same spot in Watertown, NY, Mid November 2003 and 2004. Trains were back running today, I don't know when the line was cleared, I caught Q623 today leaving Watertown headed for a meet with Q622 at Pulaski.

The line was reopened on Monday afternoon. CSX seems to keep a lot of extra rail scattered around that line for such accdents.

Line reopened for normal operations Wednesday AM, Q623 was the first regular train through the wreck site. Tuesday evening Officials were attemping to run a Hospital train of the haz. mat. cars chained together with by pass air hose with engines ahead and behind. Not exactly the best way to do this. The FRA official onsite stopped the thing before they started to leave. Cause was determined to be a broken rail, train speed at the time was 38 mph in a 40 mph zone, pulling up hill. CSX treats this line like a "redheaded stepchild", SRS 125's description of the rail is correct, 2nd hand mostly salvaged from abandoned lines up North. But they, aren't just ready to let it go. Not much gunna be runnin today, except a few vans, when they find the crews for them.

Can it really be cheaper to clean up wrecks ,replace equipement and face
the possible lawsuits that could arise than keep some good wood and iron
under their trains? This all seems like such a waste to me. Conrail with
all its faults was way better than this Chicken Stuff outfit.

____ /--OOO--~-oo--oo- _____________ STEAM ON ______________

O-6-O wrote:Can it really be cheaper to clean up wrecks ,replace equipement and face
the possible lawsuits that could arise than keep some good wood and iron
under their trains? This all seems like such a waste to me. Conrail with
all its faults was way better than this Chicken Stuff outfit.

____ /--OOO--~-oo--oo- _____________ STEAM ON ______________

Even under Conrail this line was in bad shape they keeped the maintaince up on it but it was just above bare bones so to say. The ties are or were in good shape the last time I saw them 5-6 years ago. The avrage age date on the rail casting dates ranged between 1920-1940 with some spots dateing to 1880 don't know where the rail came from thow. Rail weaghts jumped between 90-145 lbs rail as for companys that casted it just about every steel firm in the U.S. has somthing in there even some rail that was cast by the Erie-Lackawanna's steel shop made it there you'll know when you find it becouse it has the E-L Logo cast on the rail.

An engineer I spoke to speculated they might have had a nasty slack run-in contribute to the wreck, the line has a roller-coaster profile, the trains are being run long and not always adequately powered.

They have problems just getting up the first couple miles of the branch sometimes, there is a fairly steep grade (goes up about 12 feet in just a few hundred yards) which becomes a lot more gradual but continues to rise. I've observed northbounds there that had to stop and restart 4 and 5 times, each time the slack slamming in and out - a wonder they haven't broken some knuckles out here already. Which is a new thing in the last few years, too, under Conrail that never happened.

One of the first southbounds had an original CSX non-dynamic GP38-2 (2558?) which I believe is one of three ex-Durham & Southern units. Seems like that one's been floating around NY off and on since CSX took over.

I can think of quite a few spots where the roller coaster profile is very noticable. Southbounds always seem to have trouble leaving Watertown as well with Kellogg Hill, if a train is underpowered you can really here them having to work to get up the hill and you can see when they fly through the yard and then crawl a mile or two later. I can recall one time where a southbound Q623 a few years ago had six units and probably around 80 cars and two of the units went down and they stalled out in Adams Center and had to send one of the local crews to tow them back to Watertown. The CN trains seem to be adequately powered normally, especially the southbound, but the Q622/Q623 trains tend to be underpowered.

There was a definite slack run in when the trailing engine went on the ground slowing the lead briefly before the air dumped and the rear ran into the headend which caused the tremendous pileup. Conrail treated this subdivision poorly also but their maintainance was all around much better than CSX.

roadster; I'm confused on the chicken and egg thing. Are you saying the
derailing engine caused the slack run in or the slack action derailed the
trailing engine?


..steam on..
/--OOO--~-oo--oo-

Yes, the trailing engine derailed on a broken rail, causing the headend to slow slightly before the air dumped setting the brakes and the rest of the train came in.