Well, we could count ourselves lucky that it did not happen on the Susquehanna River Bridge.
The actual location of the derailment is not in Aberdeen, but in Perryman MD south/west of Aberdeen, between Aberdeen and Bush River Bridge
Ah, Perry
man. When I first read this my mind said Perry
ville, but the rest of the description did not make sense for that. I thought surely jis didn't mess up his directions, as Perryville is northeast of Aberdeen. Perryman is little more than a wide spot in the road that is very close to Aberdeen, and as was said, southeast thereof. And then Bush River broke through the brain. I would suspect the NS train came on the Corridor at Perryville Wye, which is where the line paralleling the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg begins. (This line was used by the Washington section of Amtrak's National Limited when it was running. Was on it once, two cars pulled by a GG1. Aside from the train being gone, the overhead wire is now gone.)
To answer another question: No, there is no practical alternative route. There is the parallel CSX former B&O route, but it is single track and not electrified, so at best, a few diesel powered trains could be operated, and they would be at speed of probably 50 mph or less, and where would they tie back in? I can't answer that one at all.
Perryville is the location of one of the Northeast Corridor Maintenance of Way bases, which is why that name stuck in the brain. It seems after Amtrak bought the NEC as part of the Penn Central collapse, they did not realize that by excluding all freight facilities they no longer had locations to stash their MOW equipment and materials, so there was a quick study to locate potential sites for track maintenance facilities. Perryville became one of the ones that was built. In fact, as an employee of the company involved, I did the initial track layout for this one. Whether what got built is what I designed, I do not know. There was quite a bit of corporate drama going on at the time, between Amtrak, various government agencies, and internal turf wars in Amtrak itself. I say that last now, because since this was in 1978 all involved that were in any form of position of responsibility are either retired or dead.
I'll wait til Monday, hopefully they'll have things running by then.
