Derailment at Westford, MA 11-01-2016

On Tuesday evening, 11/1/16, six cars of apparently an EDPO derailed near Broadway St, Westford (near Graniteville siding?) including one placarded as 1760 hazmat (corrosive liquid, adhesive vinyl). Cars appear to be upright.

http://www.wcvb.com/news/freight-train- ... d/42335572

http://www.fox25boston.com/news/train-c ... /463031492

From the Lowell Sun:

Lowell Sun wrote:WESTFORD - Six cars on a Pan Am Railways freight train carrying a potentially flammable cleaning material derailed in the vicinity of Broadway and Graniteville roads around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, fire officials said.
. . .
The derailment occurred about a quarter of a mile away from a derailment on Feb. 19, 2014, that sparked an uproar among town officials over lack of communication from the rail company.

Read more at: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/c ... t-response" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They should start having trains come to a sudden stop by that person's house. That would confuse them! Looks like they got pretty close to get that photo.

Did the derailment occur on the number 1 track or number 2? Didn't they just put new ties in over the summer?

Broken rail

From the Lowell Sun;
"Train derailment spurs concerns in Westford"

[quote][Pan Am Executive Vice President Cynthia Scarano said there are already a number of measures in place to ensure safety along the tracks.

"We bring in outside machinery to do inspections on our tracks twice a year," she said. "Our guys inspect visually once a week every piece of track we own. We did a big project (to renovate the track) through that area, the Stony Brook Line, this summer, and we're doing more next summer."


Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadline ... z4Oz84Bnzz" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
/quote]

Interesting that Pan Am considers replacing ties (which is all they did this year), "a big project." We will have to see what next summer brings.

"He said he wants a full report from Pan Am on Monday's derailment, the causes of which have not yet been identified, and assurances that such issues will be prevented after seeing two in such a short timespan.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadline ... z4OzUeH68b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

I needed a good laugh today.

neman2 wrote:Interesting that Pan Am considers replacing ties (which is all they did this year), "a big project." We will have to see what next summer brings.

They're talking to the ignorant media and also trying to diminish any concerns, so of course they said that.

newpylong wrote:"He said he wants a full report from Pan Am on Monday's derailment, the causes of which have not yet been identified, and assurances that such issues will be prevented after seeing two in such a short timespan.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadline ... z4OzUeH68b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

I needed a good laugh today.

There's one reader comment to the Lowell Sun article that suggests the PAR's adopted name maybe wasn't such a great PR move:

Perhaps entrusting an airline that went bankrupt with rail safety and maintenance wasn't the best idea

Somebody should tell PAR Exec VP Scarano that the Stony Brook work isn't finished as there are still several hundred uninstalled ties along Main one at Wagon Wheel (plus the couple of installed new ties that are unspiked).

johnpbarlow wrote:There's one reader comment to the Lowell Sun article that suggests the PAR's adopted name maybe wasn't such a great PR move:

Perhaps entrusting an airline that went bankrupt with rail safety and maintenance wasn't the best idea

What an incredibly ignorant comment on the part of that reader. Pan American had a stellar record for safety and maintenance, and everything they did was first class. They were, and still are, widely considered the greatest airline in history. Had it not been for terrorists blowing up one of Pan Am's 747s, murdering 270 innocent persons, Pan American World Airways might still be in business today. After that tragedy happened, the two nails in the coffin were an unsuccessful attempt to merge with Northwest, and skyrocketing fuel prices attributed to the war in the Persian Gulf.

A little history goes a long way.

If, as the reader implies, the original Pan American World Airways had purchased and taken over Guilford Transportation Industries (and the Flight 103 bombing never happened), we would likely be talking about the finest and most respected regional railroad in North America.

This new accident occurred mere yards from a 1991 derailment which was viewed by similarly blinkered Westford Town officials at the time as a major issue. Funny enough, if one were to walk the line along the siding in Graniteville at the right time of year (winter), said person would still see the remains of two boxcars corroding in a swamp.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe 1991 was human error caused and this recent one was presumably track defect caused?

Does anyone have pictures of the cars in the swamp? Thats so cool.

Wicked Local Westford ran a follow-up article on the most recent Graniteville derailment "Cause of Graniteville derailment still unknown"

http://westford.wickedlocal.com/news/20 ... ll-unknown

The photos accompanying the article suggest that the Graniteville siding track has not been rebuilt yet !?!? Can this be true? If so, this might partly explain why EDPO was held for at least an hour at CPF-333 at approx 10:00AM on Friday 1/18/16 as dispatcher said there was no room to take the train on D2. That Graniteville siding is a heavily used parking space.

The photos must be old. A drive-by on November 25 confirms that the track has been rebuilt so I would assume the siding is in service.