A CSX Transportation train sits under the Washington Street bridge in Cumberland, Md., after striking it Thursday, June 21, 2018. The train also struck the Fayette Street bridge. The extent of damage to the bridges was not immediately clear to bystanders.
Cumberland Times-News/ Steve Bittner
CUMBERLAND, Md. — What happens now is the big question political leaders in Cumberland are asking after a CSX Transportation train passing through the Maryland town struck several bridges over the railroad right-of-way on June 21.
A CSX representative confirms media reports to Trains News Wire that an intermodal train struck two bridges in the town just before Noon last Thursday. The representative says the railroad is speaking with city leaders about the bridge’s future.
According to the Cumberland Times-News, police closed the Fayette Street bridge, which was the last bridge connecting the city and one of the few remaining road routes left for automobiles to cross the tracks.
Cumberland’s mayor tells the newspaper that the June 21 strike was the second time CSX freight trains have struck bridges in recent months.
At the risk of starting the obvious, it would appear that some higher clearance roadway bridges over the CSX at these two locations in Cumberland, MD. are required?
Probably a stupid question on my part, but are clearances posted on these bridges like they are on freeway bridges? And if not, why not?
Bottom line: Looks like somebody up the food chain neglected to inform an apparently inexperienced dispatcher/train crew that this route was “low clearance”. I thought train crews were supposed to be “checked out” on routes over which they are authorized to operate trains. Wouldn’t this also include knowing clearance requirements for loads carried in the trains they are operating vs. minimum clearances on the route over which they are operating?
Something’s not right at CSX, even with That Man gone (I had NOTHING to do with his demise–I was in Cincinnati doing a one-nighter at the time).. This is elementary. Maybe I shouldn’t sleep overnight trackside in the Berkshires. NS never seems to have this problem with clearances.
CSX punted these bridges down the road for years. Didn’t an autorack strike one of these bridges a year or two ago also?
2 of these 3 CSX owned bridges are an easy fix. The last requires some compromising that isn’t unsurmountable.
I think CSX has been deferring maintenance and improvements on this sub expecting coal to dry up and the paper mill to close. Neither hasn’t happened and now their stuck with aging bridges, viaducts, and infrastructure.
I have to wonder about the headmaster and or dispatcher who allowed this movement. What kind of experience did they have?
Also why isn’t the NTSB investigating?
GERALD MCFARLANE: “Everyone needs to look at that photo again…the double stack of containers that are beyond the bridge show damage but not crush damage, which leads be to believe that the bridges are cleared for double stacked STANDARD containers, but not double stacked Standard/High Cube or double stacked High Cube containers, which would explain the photo.”
mrw: GOOD POINT, G.M. To the point, regardless of how CAREFUL we try to be, Murphy’s Rule reigns.
ROBERT HOOVER: “I was surprised to see this photo since it shows double stacks on the line heading to Keyser and Grafton. The comments below clear this up. This is an important street up to the courthouse and county offices in town, and I seem to recall previous articles from the Times-News excerpted in the Western Maryland Chapter NRHS newsletter which indicated that the county and CSX were already trying to figure out how or if they could resolve clearance issues on these bridges. This will doubtless accelerate these discussions.”
mrw: HOW INTERESTING, R.H. It looks like this could have been avoided, both by the issue being taken seriously and acted upon, and secondly there is a KNOWN problem that ALL should have been aware/alerted to.
As I said Murphy’s Law reigns, thankfully it was not a fatal. endmrw0627181204
BOB CROWE – Forgive please my inarticulateness. I was looking for a way to support your point. Seems as if I missed. My apologies.
Mr Landey, that was my point.
BOB CROWE – Regarding your comments to Mr. Conaway. Front-line rail employees are self-motivated and self-supervised and highly skilled. And extremely dedicated to a safe work environment. That is, unless they work for a failing mismanaged no-class crash – and -burn outfit like CSX. As my wife often says, regarding the workplace, “It starts at the top.”
Mr Conaway, you sound like a mid level manager who does nothing but cover your ass. Do you or have you ever worked at CSX, any other railroad or any job of that as an actual worker. Having a job is indeed thankful, especially if morale is high. If it is not, all it does is affect the quality and safety of the job. I can’t tell you the number of meetings I have sat through whose only answer to questions raised about job concerns was “If you don’t like it, then go get a job elsewhere”.
Here in Western Massachusetts in the town of Montague years ago, a Pan Am predecessor dropped the roadbed to allow double stacks to fit under a bridge. The work undermined the bridge abutments and the bridge has been closed to automobile traffic ever since.
At the rate this comment thread is going, along with many others I’ve seen, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trains just got rid of the comment section entirely…
What happened to “respectful and on-topic”?
@LANDEY&CROWE – I am a floor-level non-union factory rat who has a job that Is comparable in wages and benefits to those of the railroad. Sure, I understand the standard grousing – “I hate getting up in the mornings”, “it’s hot”, “wish I had the day off” , “my boss is a dick”. But anything beyond that is being an entitled and ungrateful sonofabitch. You go to work so you can live – buy cars, a house, have a pretty girl on your arm, get some land, go on vacation, have insurance, retire someplace warm. Being a gleefully happy employee is not necessarily a requirement. There are plenty of people out there who are living paycheck to paycheck and not making a living wage who would gladly trade places with anyone making that kind of pay. So STFU, go to work, collect your paycheck and be grateful for what you DO have.
CSX = Crash, Smash, Xplode
“If the morale isn’t low over there, something is wrong with the employees.”
If they still have a job, they should be very happy. If they aren’t, there are plenty of fast food restaurants who are having to deal with open jobs due to snowflake shortages right now.
GERALD MCFARLANE: Looks like a load of damaged containers. It’s possible damage increased the height of the double stacked containers may have been higher than normal. Should have been designated as a high & wide load.
Looking at Google maps the yard along US 40 gives crews two choices for a yard lead for switching. The one in question or a two track possible main westward along US 40. Yardmaster may have had another train on the main or needed open for another move.
This could also be the result of a supervisor doubling down on his order even when told that the train wouldn’t fit. That’s precisely what happened on the C&NW in the photo that’s been posted often of a stack train with a crewcut. In their case, there was one track out of three or perhaps four that would have allowed those cars to clear; the train was not on it. I’m sure the crew still received discipline, but I’m guessing the supervisor had a change of lifestyle as well.
As for low morale on CSX, we used to hear about it anywhere we’d connect with them. I doubt that it’s improved with the vultures hanging overhead. If the morale isn’t low over there, something is wrong with the employees.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Murphy’s law. If something can go wrong it is usually only a matter of time before it does. I will add, unless conscientious precautions are constantly In Force.
Hey , at least all their stats look good these days . But that is all they worry about .
This was most likely human error. That is something that has always existed in railroading. You can address it, and even legislate against it, but it still exists as part of the statistical bell curve of human nature. The same truth holds for river barging, aircraft operation, machinery operation, or whatever. What is almost comical is the bureaucrats’ reactions when it happens. Ah, America!
In Boston we call it being “Storrowed”. Like, on Storrrow Drive, when a 13’ box truck tries to go under an 11’ 6” footbridge, and the top two feet of the truck get sardine canned. I’d never think this’d happen on a railroad, but seems it does.
Everyone needs to look at that photo again…the double stack of containers that are beyond the bridge show damage but not crush damage, which leads be to believe that the bridges are cleared for double stacked STANDARD containers, but not double stacked Standard/High Cube or double stacked High Cube containers, which would explain the photo.
The question at hand is not about Hunter Harrison. The question is why was this considered to be a yard lead move?
That is to say, why was the train on the line to Keyser (Mountain Subdivision / West End), if it had come off the Keystone Subdivision (line west to Pittsburgh) or the Cumberland Subdivision (line east to Brunswick))?
I am curious as to why this would be a yard movement, why is this required. The City and CSX have been going ’round on maintenance / clearances for these bridges for some time, so, its not like this was a surprise kind of accident.