LOGAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — More than 60 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed early today (Friday, Feb. 6) near Altoona, the railroad has confirmed.
NS said in a statement to Trains that the derailment of train 12G205 — a manifest freight from Conway Yard near Pittsburgh to Enola Yard near Harrisburg — occurred about 1 a.m. and involved approximately 65 cars, all of which remained upright. There were no injuries and there is no danger to the public.
Railroad crews are on scene and more are en route to investigate and restore operations, the railroad said.
The Logan Township United Fire Department said in a Facebook post that the derailment occurred in the Coburn/Kittanning Point area, which is near Horseshoe Curve. The fire department said no release of hazardous materials has been reported and no evacuation is involved.
A report from WJAC-TV includes video of the derailment.
The incident has led to the cancellation of today’s Pennsylvanian in both directions, Amtrak said on its NEC Alerts social media feed. The company said at that time that it was seeking buses for alternate transportation, but according to a 7:27 a.m. ET update on the Amtrak website, it is unable to provide buses.
— Updated at 9:38 a.m. CT with Amtrak information. Updated at 3 p.m. CT with link to video of derailment. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Punxsutawney Phil predicts a constant string of derailments this year.
I, too, question operating several trains on one but Amtrak couldn’t run. Unless the tracks were blocked until later in the day. With that said, why couldn’t the Pennsylvanian operate westbound to at least Altoona? Out of curiosity what does Amtrak do with connecting passengers off the Floridian?
I am booked on Amtrak 43 tomorrow (Sat) hope it’s a go.
NS train 12G derailed on track 3. The un-derailed cars at the rear of the train were removed. A couple of intermodal trains have passed the scene westbound on track 1. Amtrak 42 and 43 are annulled.
Such a shame that intermodal freight trains can continue to operate on Track 1, but Amtrak cannot operate trains 42 and 43 on Track 1 and maintain passenger service.
How do you manage to derail 65 and have them all remain upright?
Yeah it doesnt even make sense. I bet maybe the whole train consisted of 65 cars? Especially if it was intermodel.
65 cars is an insane amount to be on the ground. Even that train that hit the lowboy in TX that killed the crew doing 60mph only derailed 15 cars
Edit
Yeah i see it states its a manifest train. But im still calling BS on the number of cars on the ground.
From the video it appears that only the last few cars in the train actually left the tracks.
Wide gage rail? Accordian effect on empties? If brake pipe does not disconnect engineer can drag shit for a while.
It seems that the train was stretched too tight, probably by a DPU braking too hard. The train was 224 cars, too long for mountain territory if you ask me, but not long enough according to PSR. Traditionally, manned helpers on the tail would put dynamic braking drag on the rear, but modern cost-cutting says a DPU in the middle is good enough.