Freight Derailment disrupts Capitol Limited 2/3/23

[Rover]

The next news conference will be held at 6 a.m.

21 WFMJ News crews are on scene working to learn more from witnesses and officials and will provide updates as we get them.


https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/train-derailment-massive-fire-east-palestine-ohio/
The train derailed Friday night in East Palestine. According to to the city's Facebook page, a shelter-in-place order has been issued for East Palestine from Taggart Road to Pleasant Street. An alert sent to people in the area also said, "An evacuation has been ordered in a 1 mile area of the James St Crossing. A shelter is available at the East Palestine High School."

Police are driving through the area and using a loudspeaker to tell residents to evacuate.

https://www.sciotopost.com/breaking...nt-in-palestine-ohio-shelter-in-place-issued/


COLUMBIANA COUNTY, Ohio — Crews in Columbiana County are battling a train derailment and ensuing fire that erupted late Friday night in East Palestine.

According to our news partner WFMJ, calls came in shortly after 9 p.m. to the area of East Taggart Street along the railroad tracks.

City officials said anyone within a mile of the train crossing at James Street needed to evacuate.

Fire departments from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have been called to assist.
https://wtov9.com/news/local/train-derailment-fire-prompt-evacuations-in-east-palestine

 

[Rover]

 

[AmtrakBlue]

 

[jis]

Capitol Limited has been disrupted by a major freight derailment, information about which can be found in this article:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/train-derails-flames-ohio-causes-half-town-evacuate/story?id=96892580
Train 30 was turned at Toledo dropping off passengers at their origin station, except for those traveling stations upto Cleveland. They were placed on 48.

Train 29 was turned at Pittsburgh returning passengers on board to their points of origin.

Further developments awaited. The derailment is unlikely to be cleared very soon as may be evident from the article above.

 

[joelkfla]

Capitol Limited has been disrupted by a major freight derailment, information about which can be found in this article:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/train-derails-flames-ohio-causes-half-town-evacuate/story?id=96892580
Train 30 was turned at Toledo dropping off passengers at their origin station, except for those traveling stations upto Cleveland. They were placed on 48.

Train 29 was turned at Pittsburgh returning passengers on board to their points of origin.

Further developments awaited. The derailment is unlikely to be cleared very soon as may be evident from the article above.

Video:

 

[ashleyryan15]

Looking at openrailwaymap.org it looks like they have at least 2 diversion routes possible, one passing through ALC but just missing the platform, the other just bypassing it entirely. Hopefully someone has enough sense to reroute it instead of just canceling it indefinitely… I'm on 30 CHI-WAS next Saturday.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Looking at openrailwaymap.org it looks like they have at least 2 diversion routes possible, one passing through ALC but just missing the platform, the other just bypassing it entirely. Hopefully someone has enough sense to reroute it instead of just canceling it indefinitely… I'm on 30 CHI-WAS next Saturday.

I imagine those routes will be busy with freight trains diverting.

 

[jis]

Looking at openrailwaymap.org it looks like they have at least 2 diversion routes possible, one passing through ALC but just missing the platform, the other just bypassing it entirely. Hopefully someone has enough sense to reroute it instead of just canceling it indefinitely… I'm on 30 CHI-WAS next Saturday.

It is all upto NS. They have to approve the route and also provide pilots qualified for those routes. Amtrak is pretty much at their mercy, and will, I am certain, do whatever they are allowed to do, provided they do not charge a King's ransom for it. It is a bit more complicated than just finding a route on openrailwaymap.org, I am afraid.

However, given that the derailment is on a major NS artery, I suspect they will be very motivated to clear it up and get the route back in service ASAP. You should be OK for next Saturday.

 

[railiner]

I am curious about that…if a host railroad has a derailment, and an alternative route, would Amtrak have to pay the costs for detouring?
Doesn’t seem right…

 

[Old MM]

How can they not know what chemicals are burning? Doesn’t NS have to provide firefighters with that info?

 

[jis]

 

[jis]

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...outhern-derailment-in-ohio-continues-to-burn/

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

How can they not know what chemicals are burning? Doesn’t NS have to provide firefighters with that info?

Yes the information was/is provided to the firefighters. Then someone need to determine which railcars are on fire, damaged, or leaking. That’s the trick.

Even with a drone doing the dangerous work, you still need to know which railcars are still standing on both sides of the wreck. Then you look up all the railcars in between and determine what are flammable and hazard material. Then try to determine what actual is burning and how to address the situation.

Pumping water on this mess might just make it get worse.

 

[Rover]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/train-derails-flames-ohio-causes-half-town-evacuate/story?id=96892580

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

The bigger issue is the train derailed into a fuel farm. So the hazards are both what the train brought to the party and the business that was adjacent to the tracks. Extra fun is the extreme cold and the need for a water shuttle for the fire pumps.

 

[ashleyryan15]

50-car train derailment causes big fire, evacuations in Ohio Here's the first daylight aerial photo I've seen giving a good overview of the crash site. Looks like the damage is pretty isolated to the train and tracks, it's definitely no Lac-Mégantic. Looks like NS has a massive cleanup and repair job ahead of them but the ROW through East Palestine is very wide, which gives me hope they'll be able to get at least one track up and running relatively soon. It looks like most of the derailed train ended up on the track it was on.

And for what it's worth, Amtrak is still selling tickets for 29/30 on the 8th and later. 4th and 5th officially cancelled, 6th and 7th zeroed.

 

[Septa9739]

I was on 43 today. The conductor came through to tell passengers that 29 was cancelled and there would be no connecting service tonight. Very chaotic. Several passengers were turned around at LNC.

 

[Amtrak25]

They could run 29/30 east of Pittsburgh, bus bridge to Cleveland for 48/49, but they won't. Now with the Cap down to 1 coach + 1 sleeper, not many people disrupted.

 

[Cal]

13 minutes prior to the derailment the train was caught on a Ring camera with a small fire.

Edit: Here #norfolksouthern #train #derailed #eastpalestine #onfire #fyp | TikTok

 

[joelkfla]

NTSB says train was 150 cars long and 50 derailed, including 20 carrying hazardous material, of which 4 contained vinyl chloride. They can't say whether the cars with vinyl chloride are burning, but they say at least one is intermittently releasing its contents "thru a pressure relief device as designed."

 

[ashleyryan15]

According to @AmtrakAlerts on Twitter 29 and 30 are cancelled on the 6th as well…

 

[joelkfla]

Why can't they run the CL over either the Cardinal or the LSL route, to handle passengers between CHI & WAS? Even if they just added the CL equipment to the LSL to provide the capacity for displaced CL passengers; the westernmost parts of the routes overlap, and passengers bound for WAS or PGH could get there from NYP (though it might take an extra day.)

 

[jis]

Why can't they run the CL over either the Cardinal or the LSL route, to handle passengers between CHI & WAS? Even if they just added the CL equipment to the LSL to provide the capacity for displaced CL passengers; the westernmost parts of the routes overlap, and passengers bound for WAS or PGH could get there from NYP (though it might take an extra day.)

LSL route won't work because of tunnels and related NEC clearance issues for Superliners. Cardinal route is a possibility if CSX can find pilots and still it would take so much longer that they would run out of equipment and lead to random cancellations anyway. I suspect they could run alternate days at best.

If they could get CSX's permission they could run the Cap upto Albany I suppose, and then run a connecting special Empire Service to New York, if they can find the equipment.

It would make more sense to turn the Cap at Cleveland (which is difficult due to lack of infrastructure), and Pittsburgh and bus bridge in between, if there was the stomach to do so. But as we know given the situation with host railroad cooperation etc. the tendency is to punt.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I just heard on the news, about two hours ago (one-ish, Sunday, CST) that the fire was still burning at that time. Sounds like it may be a few days before service resumes after cleanup - anybody have more current and better information?

 

[NE933]

All of us should thank the powers that be that neither Capitol Limited was next to this freight when it derailed.