Norfolk Southern officials confirm that a 57-car, 7,687-foot-long intermodal train bound to Chicago from northern New Jersey derailed on top of Port Authority of Allegheny County tracks at 1:13 p.m. Sunday, severing the light rail’s main line near Station Square.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a T train had passed the area just minutes before the derailment.
Officials say no one was injured.
NS representative Jonathan Glass tells Trains News Wire that the train 4,838-ton train was hauling mostly “consumer goods that included housewares, food products, beverages, and other common household products found in retail shopping stores.”
Glass says contractors are on site and will spend the next 24 to 72 hours re-railing the train and removing derailed cars with heavy cranes.
Station Square is the shopping and event complex developed in and around the former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station opposite downtown Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. Certain websites report that the event center sees millions of visitors annually. The NS train dropped feet from the complex’s transit stop. The crash scene is also only a few hundred feet away from the famed Monongahela Incline funicular railway. CSX Transportation operates former P&LE and Baltimore & Ohio tracks nearest the river. NS operates former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks just up the hill.
Only after NS removes its equipment can Port Authority officials assess damage to the tracks where all northbound transit trains converge before heading into downtown Pittsburgh.
The Post-Gazette cites city of Pittsburgh Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mullen saying he was thankful there were no “fracking oil cars” involved in the derailment. Glass says NS apologizes to Pittsburgh residents for any inconvenience the derailment is causing.
Oops!
Amazing pictures
Lint k to article from Pittsburgh Post Gazette complete with diagrams of the derailment.
http://tiny.cc/6ykmwy
Overhead photos show 2 or 3 cars laying on their sides on the tracks ahead of the cars that rolled down the hill into the station. Track was inspected the day before the derailment, according to a local news outlet.
For Charles Weinstock to toss out “NIMBY” is a bit gratuitous. As a Pittsburgher, I can understand the concerns of the local residents, which far exceed fears of pollution. NS wants raise the bridges crossing the tracks in their neighborhood, which IMO is a poor idea for many reasons. Lowering the tracks, as has been done in many tunnel projects, seems to have hit a snag due to water pipes beneath the tracks in the locality.
Yes, many are concerned about pollution and increased traffic. NS will have to do a far better job of educating people in this regard than they have done to date, and the timing of this derailment is unfortunate as it will raise the volume level of the argument for bypassing the Mon Line in favor of rerouting stack trains via the Pittsburgh/Conemaugh lines and keeping the Mon Line as an emergency alternative. And eventually I believe this will be the ultimate result.
But it’s a likely decision for the future. Not so much IF, but HOW, and then WHEN.
There are multiple three and five car packs that count as one car in stack trains.
Haha I worked for Walmart and right away I didnt noticed the derailed train..I noticed the scattered Walmart plain-packaged shoe boxes lol
A 57 car 7687 foot train even adding a few locomotives implies 120 foot long cars. Does NS run trains with such long cars? Either I’m missing something or there’s something inaccurate in this report.
For a cleanup report from a local Pittsburgh station
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/08/07/train-derailment-mt-wasington-transit-tunnel-reopens/
Only a stroke of exceptionally good luck averted a major disaster!! These “double stacks” came down the hill directly into the station where light rail AND busses Stop! And only a couple of hundred yards east of where the Mon incline passes over the NS tracks.Also the north exit of the light rail/bus tunnel. This area has to be one of the “tighest” and busy areas for transit operations in PGH. Only a fraction of time for this derailment, one way or the other averted certain injury and/or loss of life!
Yes, it’s just you….
Yes, Al, and there have been a lot of protests regarding the plan to route through downtown including an article by two local university professors discussing the increased air pollution that will result. NIMBY.
Ironically, NS has recently announced a proposal to modify its portion of the route through the downtown passenger station to permit double stacks to pass through it, thereby avoiding the need to circumvent its reduced clearance by using the roundabout routing over the Mon Line
No, Amtrak runs on the main line. This happened on the Mon line.
Oh Frack !!!!!
@Bradley McWilliams – I understand your point, with industry terminology. However, if you were to use Bakken Shale Oil as an example, (which is frac-ed) it is not a fully refined product, which makes it substantially more volatile and explosive. CBR (Crude by Rail) has garnered major national attention over the last few years, and multiple tragedies have already occurred. There are discussions on if volatility standards should be set within Transportation sector, forcing certain types of crude oil to be refined closer to the well head and made less explosive, before shipment.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/11/28/regulators-consider-crude-oil-volatility-limits-would-require-oil-stabilization
https://sertc.org/courses/crude-by-rail-emergency-response-cbr/
will it effect Amtrak running
Sheared axle could be the culprit..
That was a fracking close call!
Could somebody explain to me what “fracking oil” is?
I work in the oil and gas business, and to say “fracking oil” is as uninformed as saying “locomotive boxcar”. Oil is a product that comes from a well. Fracturing is a process used in the completion of a well to enhance it’s production. Whether or not a well was fractured has no bearing on the product it produces, makes it no more or less volatile. Saying “fracking oil” is nothing more than using pop culture buzz words to increase hysteria. Kind of scary the deputy fire chief is worried about products that don’t exist.
I would think he should have been thankful there was no cars or containers of some poisonous inhalant.