Derailment= East Palestine Ohio

NBC Today show report this morning:

• Local town hall got testy -- NS sent representatives but residents got no answers to questions.
• Pres Biden to visit.
• EPA to review NS plan to temporary remove track to remove contaminated soil. May get approval today.
• EPA to test for post-burn chemicals
• 7 freight railroads including NS joining close call reporting system.

Mod Note: I pulled the large post about the Railway Safety Act of 2023 and created it's own thread in General Class 1 & 2

railway-safety-act-of-2023-t175116.html

BR&P wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:36 pm On one hand we have various government agencies testing the air, water, adjacent land, and insisting there is little if any contamination. On the other hand you have residents and on-site workers reporting various symptoms which would indicate there IS a big problem. Are the tests inaccurate, and/or the reports of no problem being fabricated? Are a whole lot of people all imagining or faking their symptoms?

It's going to be interesting to see how all this gets resolved.

That the tests are accurate and that the people are experiencing symptoms can both be true. There can be other causes of the symptoms. One big one is stress.

NPR Morning Edition had a segment on the nitty-gritty of the cleanup
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/03/11604817 ... te-cleanup

FWIW, the Weyauwega derailment occurred 27 years ago this morning. I'm sure those residents affected will remember that and the weeks that followed for the rest of their lives.

How say we address a REAL HAZMAT derailment incident:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly,_ ... _explosion

Fair Use:

The Waverly, Tennessee, tank car explosion occurred at approximately 2:58 pm on February 24, 1978, in Waverly, Tennessee, following a train derailment incident days earlier. A tank car containing 30,161 US gallons (114,170 l; 25,114 imp gal) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exploded as a result of cleanup related to the derailment.[1]

Derailment
At about 10:30 p.m. on February 22, twenty-four cars of a 92-car Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) freight train derailed in the downtown area of Waverly. Initially, local emergency services handled the accident, including inspecting the wreck for signs of any hazardous material (or hazmat) leaks.[2][3] The responding team assumed the LPG tank car was a double-wall tank car; however, it was a single-wall car.

April TRAINS has a comprehensive article regarding this incident, but then Kalmbach has wisely had their copyrighted material behind paywalls since "the beginning".

Finally, isn't it time for local Eastern Ohio media to stop running headlines to the effect of "Mayor Pete Missed the Train" because he wasn't on the ground within five hours after the incident occurred? Now that hue and cry will bring Joe to the scene for whatever that will accomplish. If people have been injured as a result of toxic whatever, then Topper and the several levels of government should step up. But so far, the only damage has been to Topper's former PRR Ft. Wayne Division.

Finally, will this incident become another Camp Lejune for "Glen" and his colleagues?

CLamb wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:54 pm That the tests are accurate and that the people are experiencing symptoms can both be true. There can be other causes of the symptoms. One big one is stress.

The tests don’t test for every possible contaminant under the sun, they only test for the chemicals they’re specifically designed to detect. It’s quite possible that the tests they did turned up negative, but that there are dangerous contaminants those tests didn’t test for. I believe dioxins is one thing they’re now looking at testing for that the earlier tests wouldn’t have detected.

So once again I ask who made the decision to control burn demo apprx. 150000 gal vinyl chloride and why?? I have posted the hazardous chemicals it will morph into once set on fire and what it will do to humans when exposed. Some of which the residents and workers themselves have been complaining about.
The EPA I'm sure has received a bit o cake from Toppers coffers to make everything okey dokey. Wouldn't want to admit it may not have been the best way to go about business. But PSR cant withstand a mainline being shut down for any amount of time. The computer geeks don't understand the world is an imperfect place.

GBN (and Everyone:) - After reading about the 2/24/1978 Waverly, TN incident this memory came to mind:

July 19, 1974 Decatur, IL N&W Railroad yard explosion involving a breach of a full tank car of ISOBUTANE
The highly flammable contents escaped as a gas and about 10 minutes later a spark ignited an explosion.
Seven employees were killed along with other multiple injuries - around 300 freight cars were destroyed
or damaged and there was property damage to about 80 surrounding homes...some overview pictures:
http://omeka.decaturlibrary.org/items/show/3608

Search "Friday July 19, 1974 Decatur, IL N&W Rail Yard Explosion"
This search should list a link from *RR Workers United* for a very informative PDF describing the
Decatur explosion and aftermath "Memories still strong of 1974 rail yard explosion"
This PDF includes photos (unfortunately my device can not link to this site or PDF.)

On a personal note I was visiting relatives in SW Chicago back in July 1974 as a young teenager and remember
learning about this highly-covered news story - Just over one block away from where my relations lived then
is N&W's (now NS) Landers Yard which was a former Wabash facility - the line SW once ran to Decatur with
the best example being the one-train-each way on weekdays "Orland Park Cannon Ball" commuter train
running south to Decatur Friday evenings returning Monday morning for the N&W Decatur Division crew
to return home for the weekends. Crew members from Decatur had rooms available at the Orland Park
depot during the week. I posted other memories at the N&W Forum in the fallen flag section of RR.Net.

Going back on topic the Decatur, IL disaster is relevant for the EP discussion...MACTRAXX

Here's why the CCCRP is important:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... SApp_Other

In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo.

Mod Note: Saturday’s derailment in Springfield, OH has its own thread.

https://railroad.net/post1617386.html#p1617386

While it has been noted here, the NTSB Preliminary Report is presented as a PDF file which makes linking to such difficult from an Android phone. However, NPR has such link embedded within this report.

Possiblly, this information has been previously reported here,, but this Journal article is nevertheless interesting:

Fair Use:

The freight railcar that federal investigators say likely caused last month’s derailment in Ohio was handed off among four railroads before its fateful trip and was owned by a fifth company, according to documents and people familiar with the railcar’s history and journey.

The story of the railcar, which was destroyed in a fiery wreck on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, a small town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, illustrates the challenges that federal investigators have in understanding the cause of and factors that contributed to the derailment. They also reflect the complex nature of how the rail industry operates.

<https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-release ... 30323.aspx>
{USG statement; no copyright}

NTSB to Open a Special Investigation into Norfolk Southern Railway’s Safety Practices and Culture

3/7/2023

​​​WASHINGTON (March 7, 2023) — The National Transportation Safety Board announced today a special investigation of Norfolk Southern Railway’s organization and safety culture.

Given the number and significance of recent Norfolk Southern accidents, the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate action today to review and assess its safety practices, with the input of employees and others, and implement necessary changes to improve safety.

Since December 2021, NTSB has launched investigation teams to five significant accidents involving Norfolk Southern.

On Dec. 8, 2021, an employee for National Salvage and Service Corporation assigned to work with a Norfolk Southern work team replacing track was killed when the operator of a spike machine reversed direction and struck the employee in Reed, Pennsylvania.

On Dec. 13, 2022, a Norfolk Southern trainee conductor was killed, and another conductor was injured, when the lead locomotive of a Norfolk Southern freight train struck a steel angle iron protruding from a gondola car on another Norfolk Southern freight train that was stopped on an adjacent track in Bessemer, Alabama.

On Feb. 3​, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment resulted in a significant fire and hazardous materials release.

On March 4, a 2.55-mile-long Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Springfield, Ohio.

On March 7, a Norfolk Southern employee was killed during a movement in Cleveland, Ohio.

As part of the special investigation, the NTSB will also review the Oct. ​8, 2022, Norfolk Southern derailment in Sandusky, Ohio.

The continued safe operations of Norfolk Southern is vital to the United States. The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture. The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company. At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.

The Ravenna derailment in November did not get noticed by NTSB until after the East Palestine wreck. This news story isn't too good.

https://fox8.com/news/ntsb-investigates ... erailment/

Several details in the above Fox News report are as troublesome as they are revealing: Cars and materials from the NOVEMBER derailment remain at the scene, and, damage to adjacent property had not been reported (or settled), and it's alleged the number of cars derailed had been understated.

These assertions - IF TRUE - speak volumes. Notwithstanding, I personally believe CEO Shaw is making a good-faith effort to restore order and credibility at NS under extremely trying circumstances.