Massive derailment Painesville, Ohio

Q380 derailed at 12:05 this afternoon between Menter and Painesville Ohio, on CSX's Lakeshore Sub.. Part of CSX's Water level route/former Conrail/NYC tracks. Dozens of cars including havmat, ethanol, are on fire. CNN headline news is showing a ariel video. Emergency crews plan to let the fire burn itself out. Both mains are destroyed. Expect a couple day delays, before traffic is moving through here again. Some priority trains will most likely get detoured over the NS tracks near this area. Derailment occured about 20 cars from the headend. No injuries reported. Cause is under investigation of course.

More here:

http://cms.firehouse.com/web/online/New ... o/46$56697

Mike

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.a ... ryid=75849

4:15 p.m. Channel 3 News reporter, Carole Sullivan reports that according to CSX 30 railcars were involved in the derailment. Of those 30 cars, 8 of them contained a hazardous material. According to CSX: 6 of those cars were carrying ethanol, 1 car was carrying propane and one was carrying phthalic anhayeride. Experts on site say none of the substances in those 8 cars are considered toxic, but they are hazardous because of their flammability. CSX says the car carrying the propane is being monitored closely. It is not near the flames, but is under pressure and there is some concern it could explode. However, firefighters say the torrential rains and cool temperatures are helping to keep the situation under control.

1:10 p.m. Channel 3 News reporter, Carole Sullivan, reports from the scene that the train is a CSX train which was heading from Collinwood to Buffalo when it derailed. Authorities tell her that there were hazardous materials being carried on the train, but it is unknown at this time whether the cars involved in the derailment were carrying those hazardous materials.

Ethanol, butane (or a like gas), and another flammable tank. From photos, I have deduced they are TILX 160338, 191303, 192807, NATX302298, and SHPX 208142. All contained ethanol from Mason City to Albany, NY.

Even with their accidents, CSX keeps dodging the bullet.

If this had happened two days ago, during that dry, hot (88 degrees) spell in the area, those propane tanks would be popping like Black Cats on the Fourth.

CP-154 at Painesville has been a rough spot in the track for nearly a decade, but apparently this happened BEFORE that point. CP-155 is apparently under the wreck, but that's only two power switches into two sidings - and not as bouncy.

The derailment was about half a mile from the Lubrizol (STP and other motor-oil additives) plant. Had it happened right on the frontage, the result also would have been very different.

The similar wreck in Oneida last winter was the same - a remote area, cold weather, no injuries. I don't know how long they can keep banking on luck.

It's phthalic anhydride.
Not phthalic "anhayeride".
Reporters these days just can't be bothered with details.

Incredible aerial footage from cnn.com....

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/200 ... .fire.wkyc
(you have to sit through a commercial before the video begins)












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consist wrote:It's phthalic anhydride.
Not phthalic "anhayeride".
Reporters these days just can't be bothered with details.

hey, someone in the editing room can't tell the difference between chemicals and halloween special events, thats all. I'll have to remember later to go over and take the Haunted Hydride.

Oneida took at least a week to straighten up fully... With the exception of Amtrak trains, movements terminating at Frontier Yard, coal trains that wye off at Ashtabula, and local freights, I won't see much up here in Rochester for a bit... Simply put, that cans any railfanning plans I had this weekend... Way to go CSX...

>>MC

MC6853 wrote:Oneida took at least a week to straighten up fully... With the exception of Amtrak trains, movements terminating at Frontier Yard, coal trains that wye off at Ashtabula, and local freights, I won't see much up here in Rochester for a bit... Simply put, that cans any railfanning plans I had this weekend... Way to go CSX...

>>MC

Well if you think that's bad...looks like I am gonna have a week or so with no work or pay! This after a night of playing clean-up on trains that had to duck into Collinwood...or pulled back into Collinwood...

I have something of the inside skinny on what caused the accident. It may or may not have been "broken rail" - but my sources tell me the train was on approach from QD 155; with a stop indication at QD 154...and standing orders not to block Newell Street, which is halfway through that one-mile block.

It's something of a trap...the signal at 158 does NOT display an Advanced Approach; the engineer has to get on the brakes the SECOND he sees an Approach at QD 155. And for some reason it's a hard signal to see in daylight.

My educated guess was that the young engineer saw the approach and tried to stop the consist in the CSX-approved way - with dynamic brakes. The train may have buckled in the middle and piled up and touched off.

If the engineer did this...well, if he had more experience he'd have gotten on the air immediately, and Train Handling Standards be damned. The result of that "violation" would have been a phone call and possibly an entry in his work record.

Instead...he's got to sweat blood for the next few days or weeks.

Amen CR Engineer, if its a needed quick stop, in somewhat unexpected form, you best be grabbing the little red handle, and sucking em down. Unless you only got a hadfull of cars dynamic is a planed form of breaking.

There was supposedly an empty box car in between a bunch of loaded tankers and I'm led to believe thats not a real good thing with slack running in and out. As of 3 PM today it was still burning and they wouldn't let us near it yet.

Seems like in that circumstance, with the signals only 1 mile apart and 1/2 mile to stop before fouling the crossing, it would have been nice of the Dispatcher to let the crew know they were going to stop them

blippo wrote:Seems like in that circumstance, with the signals only 1 mile apart and 1/2 mile to stop before fouling the crossing, it would have been nice of the Dispatcher to let the crew know they were going to stop them

That's how it was in the Days of Conrail. The dispatcher was your Tour Guide; and the good ones never left you guessing (the ones that DID, could probably hear us swearing withOUT a radio).

That has changed - drastically. CSX uses "dispatchers" to prepare bulletins and "train releases" and sometimes line switches. But the CSX dispatchers will almost never talk to you unless THEY are told from above that it's an emergency.

Since we in Conrail-Land have gone to "two-channel dispatching" the dispatchers don't monitor the "road channel" and have to be "toned up" to answer the Dispatcher Channel. It's tedious and time consuming...and we're given NO advance notice of where to stop or hold back; or where we might be crossing.

Browns Town wrote:There was supposedly an empty box car in between a bunch of loaded tankers and I'm led to believe thats not a real good thing with slack running in and out. As of 3 PM today it was still burning and they wouldn't let us near it yet.

It's common to use an empty boxcar or covered hopper as a "buffer car" between HazMat that cannot be in the train up against each other, such as interacting chemicals; or loaded pipe and tanked HazMat.

ONE empty between loads shouldn't be a problem. The CSX rule book allows that; although I realize that's hardly proof.

Gotta love the Ohio forum. The only posters were from NY!
Last count was 30 or 32 cars.

Even with their accidents, CSX keeps dodging the bullet.

That's what happens with Bush league in the WH.