SANDSTONE, W.Va. — CSX Transportation has completed removal of the 22 empty coal hoppers that derailed Wednesday when its train hit a rock slide in the New River Gorge, the railroad reports, as it continues efforts to reopen its rail line.
The derailment occurred at 4:51 a.m. Wednesday when the train hit several large boulders, injuring the three crew members [see “CS empty coal train hits rock slide …,” Trains News Wire, March 8, 2023].
The large boulders that caused the derailment have also been cleared from the rail line. Removal of the train’s four locomotives should be complete today, the railroad says; additional environmental measures have been deployed to contain fuel that may leak as the final locomotive is removed. Once the locomotives are removed, CSX says it will work with the National Park Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to excavate and remove and rock or soil contaminated by the fuel.
Two of the train’s three crew members remain hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries; the railroad says it is providing support to the employees and their families.
CSX says is deploying drones to survey areas with similar topography “in an effort to identify and mitigate where possible the risk of rockslides. This proactive effort will supplement the measures we already have in place, such as fencing and detectors, in areas that are prone to slides.”
What must have gone through the engineer’s mind when he first saw those boulders reminded me of the line in the Jimmie Rodgers song “The Wreck of the Number Nine” – “He steered round a hill and his brave heart stood still, for a headlight was shining in his face.”
Maybe it is now time to equip loco seats with seat belts – and wear them.
Seat belts and air bags?
Why stop there Mr. Thomas, you forgot to mention seat ejection and parachutes. How about the ability to roll off your seat as a piece of shifted load is about to empail you, or a heavy object is dropped on you from an overpass, I can go on ad infinitum, just don’t strap me in.
I’ve Been seeing comments on YouTube claiming that despite the cause CLEARLY being a boulder getting on the tracks, the crash was sabotage. Well, I think the only thing that has really been “sabotaged” are those idiot’s brains.
Absolutely no knowledge of mountainous railroading for morons like this to post crap like that. Thank the lord for the fact that no one was killed.
Oddly, the SBB and cantonal regionals have hundreds of kilometers of various fencing, barricades and other preventive measures to avoid these problems.
I doubt this is the first rockslide in the New River Gorge. I suppose CSX will plead this was “unforeseeable” and therefore is an “accident”.