Ellicott City CSX train derailment

[Mike Doughney]

Derailment of a coal train at about midnight at the Main Street overpass in downtown Ellicott City. According to abc2, one of the dead was a college student; reports are that bargoers commonly climb up on the bridge at night. No published pictures or video are available yet.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/08/el ... 79013.html

Two people are dead after a CSX train derailed near Frederick Road in Ellicott City.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman says the 80-car train carrying a load of coal derailed in the 8000 block of Frederick Road around 12 a.m. Tuesday.

Ulman says 23 of the 80 train cars flipped over and fell from a bridge, located about 20 feet off the ground, which crosses Frederick Road. Some of the cars crushed vehicles parked in a parking lot adjacent to the tracks, Ulman says.

Ulman says the victims were on the bridge at the time of the incident, but were not railroad employees. The identities of the victims has not been released.

[walt]

An update- there were two female college students from Ellicott City killed; apparently they were on the bridge and had tweeted two photos just prior to the accident. They were found underneath one of the overturned coal cars. Several of the derailed cars fell 20 feet off the bridge and onto some cars parked in a parking lot adjacent to the tracks which is used by patrons of several Ellicott City Bars on Main Street. It is not known, ( as of 1:40pm) whether there are any additional victims in any of the crushed automobiles, this won't be known until the fallen rail cars are removed. This will require cleaning up the spilled coal, then bringing in heavy cranes to lift the cars.

[RussNelson]

Also being discussed here: http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=101567