NMED on the ground in Readfield - 02-05-2011

NMED derailed at 04:00 this morning. 71-car train; 20 cars on the ground:

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/Trai ... field.html

20 cars of paper, that sounds like it could be an expensive mishap!

wreck train stuck in East Deerfield while trying to wye the power

Two heavy duty cranes with Guilford and Pan Am markings were spotted being driven south down I-95 this morning.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/Twenty-Pan ... field.html

ED Wreck train enroute. Reported to be outlawed at CPF258 (Newfields).(900AM)

Looks like quite a few scrap cars on the ground, I guess that's better than paper....

Am wondering who up that way loads scrap, maybe the shipper on the MMA in the Hermon area?? Can't think of any scrap shippers on PAR north of Waterville??

Just took a ride to check it out.

In Winthrop by Paris Farmers Union (Summer Street???) crossing is MEC606-S (snoot noses have to be the ugliest thing to ever leave La Grange...) and MEC607-N. They were there at about 12:30 this afternoon, and again about 5:00, with them at five was a highrail crane, though it was to far out to see must detail.

Up in Readfield, about the same time (4:30-5:00) down on Thorp Shores Rd, was a handful of PAR employees, all with the PAR meatball on their helmets. Also there was a PAR road crane with the meatball, parked. Out on the RoW was atleast 2 PAR excavators, one had a magnet, the other appeared to have a claw. The car closest to the crossing, a scrap gon with SSEX marks, was almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the tracks. It still appeared to have a good sized load, visible over the side. However, the ground was littered with scrap, the magnet was quite busy.

Of course the gon being 90 degrees perpendicular to the tracks made seeing much beyond that initial mess impossible. I can say that it was a nasty looking mess that is sure to keep crews busy for a couple days anyways. At least its warmer than last week...

I do wonder what caused this mess, 20 cars is a lot, and for them to be strewn all over, that seems to be a bit extreme compared to wrecks of recent history where a handful of cars hit the ground and all stay upright. And didn't Readfield get hit with track work this summer, like most of the rest of the line? Kinda leads me to believe that maybe a defect in a car somewhere is at fault. Anyway, I hope that PAR will release a report, I would enjoy reading it.

A friend of mine is a car man who is expecting to get shipped up there tomorrow. I will post what ever he tells me.
here is a picture
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/e ... directlink

BigLou80 wrote:https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/e ... directlink

Ouch! Nice perspective though shows a good chunk of the wreck.

I'm hoping to get back up there tomorrow, maybe get a bit more adventurous and look for a camp road that gives a better perspective, I'll post anything I see tomorrow as well.

Thank God for insurance....

Any word as to what that tank car in the photo was carrying? I suppose the area is lucky that it wasn't a NB train carrying paper-making chemicals.

Articles point to the derailment happening at the road. Could it be ice in the flangeways?

markhb wrote:Any word as to what that tank car in the photo was carrying? I suppose the area is lucky that it wasn't a NB train carrying paper-making chemicals.

Most of the white tank cars in Maine are slurry cars. That would be my guess, and on a southbound train, its safe to assume it was empty.

roberttosh wrote:Am wondering who up that way loads scrap, maybe the shipper on the MMA in the Hermon area?? Can't think of any scrap shippers on PAR north of Waterville??

There is a company that ships scrap out all the time right in Oakland, ME. How often they ship I don't know, but I would guess 3 or 4 times a week anyway.

Just back from Readfield, again.

They had the crossing at Thorp Shores pretty well blocked off, so my view was limited to just what I could see through the woods.

They had the two excavtors parked on the road today. There was the remains of a TILX tank car sitting on the crossing. The exterior wrapper was beat up, and the actual tank, inside the liner and the insulation was sticking out. There were a few more tanks visible before the woods blocked the view. The other lane of the crossing had some sort of heavy duty wheeled machine, it looked like it may have been used to pull the tanks out of the woods. Sitting on just east of the crossing were three sections of panel track, they looked to be about 20-25' sections. The heavy duty cranes that were there yesterday were either hidden down below the crossing or were gone. In general the area was all MofW orange, yellow or the dull gray of winter in Maine, PAR vehicles were all over the place.

In Winthrop today,
606-607 have disappeared, in fact the only thing in sight was an MofW critter burried in the total snow snowfall to date. Up on the passing siding was a rather lonely looking box car that has been there for going on 2 weeks.