Coal Train Derailment in Nashua 03-07-2013

I saw this story from last night. It seems like this train derailed prior to the snow accumulating, so i can't help but wonder if the cause of the derailment was simply the poor track conditions. I wonder if evenutally they're make long term upgrades to this line before something more serious occurs.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/996 ... -coal.html

It took a bit of time, but the official finding of the Nashua coal train wreck a few years ago was a slope-sheet failure on one car. As far as improvements, just guessing that there might be a desire to go slow in case Bow goes the way of Mt. Tom or gets changed over to natural gas and also to see what the state might be doing in the line of throwing money at infrastructure for possible Nashua commuter rail.

a heritage unit visits the area, and their train goes on the ground...and the derailment in Maine, with the oil train, I'm assuming its the weekly oil unit train??

Gotta wonder if NS will continue to allow the "run-thru" of their power on these trains if Pan Am doesn't
upgrade their tracks somewhat?

Charlie

Did a drive by this afternoon around 3pm. Pan Am crews, FRA, and NH DOT on site. One of the coal train locomotives arrived north of the bridge to begin rerailing cars. The two cars south of the bridge were off the rails about a car width. The cars north of the bridge and on the bridge looked upright and inline with the rail. The gas company was at the end of Lock St. by the underpass and had dug a hole to access the gas pipeline in case the rerailing damaged the gas line passing through the derailment site and the line needed to be shut down.

PAR wreck train enroute to Nashua this afternoon for derailment cleanup.
Thanks to John Bazan for the photo.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20130 ... 124249.jpg

Dick H wrote:PAR wreck train enroute to Nashua this afternoon for derailment cleanup.
Thanks to John Bazan for the photo.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20130 ... 124249.jpg

Does Pan Am stilll operate 2 wreck trains? I had a discussion on another site and got the impression that the East Deerfield wreck train was headed to Maine as they no longer have a Waterville wreck train.
thanks for any information.

From the Union Leader:

Union Leader wrote:Pan AM Railways and Department of Transportation officials are currently trying to determine if a rail trestle, which was damaged in a train derailment by the Bridge St. rail crossing Thursday night, is structurally sound.
. . .
"There is quite a bit of damage to the trestle," Cynthia Scarano, executive vice-president for Pan AM Railways said, adding, "there is damage to the railway ties. Bridge inspectors are checking out the trestle to make sure the bridge hasn't been compromised, but we don't believe it has been."

Read more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/2013 ... /130309162

The Nashua Derailment is less than 4 miles from the Nashua Airport (my home base).

Here's an aerial briefing:

http://samayotte.com/PAR_Nashua_Derailment.html

The bright sun and the fresh white snow made it quite a challenge to photograph.

I also flew over the Bow Power plant.

Somebody was asking about their switch engine. Yup. It was out.
They've got the cutest little SW9 ever.

5 Norfolk Southern engines (including the Wabash heritage unit) were also there.

charlie6017 wrote:Gotta wonder if NS will continue to allow the "run-thru" of their power on these trains if Pan Am doesn't
upgrade their tracks somewhat?

Charlie

Every railroad has derailments... When they derail on the UP at 60 mph the mess is a little bit bigger than a few coal hoppers off the iron...

BandM4266 wrote:

Dick H wrote:PAR wreck train enroute to Nashua this afternoon for derailment cleanup.
Thanks to John Bazan for the photo.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20130 ... 124249.jpg

Does Pan Am stilll operate 2 wreck trains? I had a discussion on another site and got the impression that the East Deerfield wreck train was headed to Maine as they no longer have a Waterville wreck train.
thanks for any information.

Yes, there are two wreck trains. The East Deerfield one has the "big hook".

Is it possible that they currently don't have enough personnel to staff both wreck trains simultaneously?

Will Pan Am build a shoo-fly track across the center span of the bridge around the derailment?

That depends on if the bridge timbers are damaged and if the ones next to it are still servicable.

newpylong wrote:

charlie6017 wrote:Gotta wonder if NS will continue to allow the "run-thru" of their power on these trains if Pan Am doesn't
upgrade their tracks somewhat?

Charlie

Every railroad has derailments... When they derail on the UP at 60 mph the mess is a little bit bigger than a few coal hoppers off the iron...

I realize that----I'm not that new to railfanning. My point is, is that Pan Am doesn't have the greatest reputation for good track and that
maybe NS wouldn't want to risk their power being damaged.

Or maybe I'm way off, and PAS has improved their track greatly in the past years? I live hours away, so I'm not there.

Charlie