Derailment= East Palestine Ohio

Not just Ravanna, also Sandusky and Stubenville......

[update] Also Delaware:
<https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/d ... residents/>
It happened on the evening of Jan. 25 near Curve Road, which is not too far from Sunbury Road. As of March 7, five derailed cars were still at the crash site.

I know this "sounds like a corny railfan", and with due respect to those around here having "that darned cat" within their CV's, it always seemed like Topper had the classier outfit.

With the heritage of the two best managed roads in the East - Harriman Award recipients N&W and SRY (but on the flipside not saying they got the "better half - PRR & ERIE - of Conrail), the classy looking Black (along with their Heritage units) engines showing the road's name, and not some Alphabet Soup, it just gave the impression that NS was the more "heads up" outfit of the two.

But with Topper's entire culture, safety just being one, albeit important, part of such, that image has been badly tarnished.

The utter silence on this forum is loud! That Norfolk Southern has derailed cars from last year STILL sitting in Ravenna, Ohio, next to homes on the Cleveland line and now all the chemically polluted soil still sitting in East Palestine, Ohio. Same shame shame.

Is Norfolk Southern a standup do good corporation? I think not.

And the way they treat employees? I think not.

Wake up all, this is not political, this is just Wall Street and Class 1s thinking they can take advantage of American cities, people and railroad employees as they see fit. The days of thinking they are bigger than the average person has passed.

Trains blocking crossings in thriving cities and neighborhoods for hours?

And another derailment, this in Alabama.

There is nothing Precision about this that and the other.

Time to pay us back E. Hunter.

OK, I gotta ask....how can we have a serious dialog about corporate quality, operational factors, industry practices - and repeatedly refer to the logo horse instead of the company? I admit the first couple times long ago I heard the railroad called "Topper" instead of NS it made me chuckle, but it's been beat to death. (the nickname, not the horse. I mean the horse, not the railroad. Well yes, the railroad's getting beat to death but...I mean...... )

It's still a free country, sorta, so call it whatever you want. Just putting in my 2 cents worth it seems to lower the credibility of the writers. I have my flame suit on, feel free to disagree!

Yea, the Ravenna situation just makes the company look bad. Destroyed septic tank leach beds, unpaved parking lots that had been chewed up by sidewinders, false data over the size of the derailment to keep the event off the radar.... I mean the literal shit had to literally rise to the surface before proper cleanup and reimbursement was made.

Was surprised by JD Vance's targeting of 'free market republicans' for balking on the safety bill.

The area around East Palestine was once a huge producer of pottery/china/dishwear, at one time hosting factories supplying the US with 80% of said products. Most of that business has since been offshored. And I'm afraid the railroad will be paying for that 30-year economic injustice in addition to paying for a hazmat derailment. It is not a shock that the only people left willing to lead the town is someone who has yet to be seen in a media event wearing a button down shirt and tie. This 'economically forgotten people' injustice is really what was behind the mayor's sore spot objection to Biden going to Ukraine rather than his town. He literally believed this accident should have been pushed to the head of the line in terms of Biden's on-scene priorities. And that is just not so. Biden's responsibilities are much larger.

Mr. Coaltrain, I'm at a loss to understand why some elected officials such as Sen. Vance (R-OH) and E. Palestine Mayor Conaway, aided and abetted by the media, have made this incident, from which the property damage is confined to such within the care, custody, and control of the Norfolk Southern Corp, into a Megantic.

While this could change, there have been no personal injuries directly attributable to the incident, even if some politicians, media personalities, "Glen and colleagues", and yes, even The New York Times, would have you believing the whole town has been affected one way or the other by that "mean and irresponsible" corporation headquartered way down in Atlanta Georgia.

To what extent the complaints of respiratory and vision ailments from residents are with foundation and have arisen from the incident should be left to independent medical personnel, i.e. those not working for Tucker, Glen, or Topper. If such be the case, then they should rightly be compensated for such by NS.

But just as well, author no longer holds a Long position NSC.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 7:58 am ....from which the property damage is confined to such within the care, custody, and control of the Norfolk Southern Corp, into a Megantic.

While this could change, there have been no personal injuries directly attributable to the incident
...

I was not aware that NS owns all the property now seen littered with rolling stock. They don't in Ravenna.

Just to state the obvious, not all injuries have blood spurting. It took years for the damage DDT was doing to come to light. The children of Flint were irreversibly poisoned with lead for several years before there was action.

We infected GI's in Vietnam with Agent Orange, and those in the Gulf Wars with toxic air from burnpits; only in the last ~year has VA care and compensation been provided. [Not to mention, their children's birth defects...] Don't forget the Forever Chemicals in AFFF that have destroyed farmland.

If NS is sure there's no long term risk in East Palestine, perhaps they should buy the homeowners out. They are unlikely to be competing against anyone else.

Mr. Farecard, first let it be noted that I carefully avoided the use of the term "own", but rather used the "three C's" - a favorite of the property and casualty side of the insurance industry. Case in point, likely most if not all the derailed cars are "Privately Owned" (in the railroad sense of that term) with reporting marks ending with "X". Further, I can't be sure who actually owns the right of way. For all I know, the PRR subsidiary, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Western, which was a road King Pennsy absorbed, remains on the books.

However, what really counts; and that is your observation that physical and mental injuries arising from the incident do not show up overnight. Again I note that rightfully NS, and/or their insurer, must be prepared to be on tap for a long time to come. All I meant to do was to slow down the "rush to judgement" here at our discussion. We need not be like that Personal Injury law firm I've noted that already has a tab at their site labeled "Ohio Train Derailment".

I sincerely respect your thoughts.

To be clear on the first part, from the drone imagery, it seems direct property damage extended as far as roughly 2 car lengths from the tracks. How wide a RoW will the carrier actually own?

(Assuming they own it at all. I'm aware of some Ohio trackage that was on ground obtained via a many-decades-old easement. This came up in my world when AT&T had run fiber along the trackage, but the line was abandoned, and the easement then expired. When the legal dust settled, AT&T ended up paying dearly for their then-intruding routes....)

Its as simple as this. NS is a multi billion corporation who resides/moves traffic through my community hourly.
You had an accident and you have not cleaned up your f'n mess. Thats like renting a room in my house, you blew something up and I'm still waiting for you to clean up your mess. And then more happens in someone else's and your crying that your trying to be a good citizen.

My ASS!

So with all your money NS investors, clean it up and pay the piper. I can't honestly say anything positive to my friends/family about railroading when there's boxcar shit sitting in my relatives backyard for all to see. Wake up Norfolk Southern. Anyone alluding to "topper"needs to refresh.

I remember a Conrail engineer in the past who called NS "naz* southern". And that was nice.

Maybe your relatives could get a set of torches, start cutting apart the boxcar on their property and taking it to the local scrap yard! Or get their lawyer to draw up something to send NS saying your relatives will rent their back yard to NS for storage of the wrecked boxcar, at the rate of $2,000 per day. I know, I know, neither option is totally realistic, but surely creative minds can come up with something.

Perhaps, not allow NS to reopen the line before the damage is cleaned up.
I suspect they would move far faster in that case...

I don't get the "Topper" references. Please explain.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 7:58 am To what extent the complaints of respiratory and vision ailments from residents are with foundation and have arisen from the incident should be left to independent medical personnel, i.e. those not working for Tucker, Glen, or Topper. If such be the case, then they should rightly be compensated for such by NS.

Mr. Motor, regarding your immediate, here are the "dramatis personae" noted within this discussion by both myself and others:

Tucker: Tucker Carlson, Fox News on-air host who has addressed East Palestine on his show numerous times since the incident.

Glen: Glen Lerner, a founding attorney with the Personal Injury law firm Lerner & Rowe. This firm already has a tab at their site titled "Ohio Toxic Train Derailment".

Topper: A Black Thoroughbred horse that is the official mascot of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

The horse that sits dead smack in the middle of the front of just about every NS locomotive, and dead center on the corporate logo, depending on which one is being used.