STEARNS, Ky. — McCreary County Heritage Foundation officials, owners of the Big South Fork Scenic Railway right-of-way, have confirmed the Jan. 28 derailment of a locomotive was the result of a runaway incident.
No one was injured in the incident on the 14-mile tourist railway [see “Big South Fork Scenic locomotive derails …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 6, 2025].
Ray Moncrief, chairman of the foundation, says in an article in the McCreary Journal that the incident took place while the train crew was returning to Stearns, Ky., after performing a routine track inspection.
While headed back to the shop, and about a mile from Stearns, EMD SW9 No. 106 encountered a mechanical issue and shut down on the railroad’s steep grade. The crew applied the SW9’s handbrake and wheel chocks and radioed to a nearby shop worker to pick them up so that they could return to the shop and ready the railroad’s other locomotive — a recently acquired ex-U.S. Sugar EMD GP11 — to retrieve the disabled switcher. But upon returning to the site with the second locomotive, the switcher was missing.
After a reported handbrake failure and pushing its wheel chocks off the railhead, the SW9 rolled, unmanned, for about 2 miles, down the railroad’s 3% grade, through a tunnel, and into a sharp bend where it derailed into a mountainside near a retention pond along Roaring Paunch Creek. The locomotive encountered no grade crossings while rolling downgrade.
The SW9 sustained major damages and is likely a total loss.
A source unaffiliated with the events, but familiar with the railroad and the incident, tells News Wire the locomotive’s impact was significant enough for its generator to break loose from the prime mover. The fireman’s side locomotive cab was completely destroyed and the locomotive landed about 11 feet from the rail.
The source says it is surprising the locomotive did not derail sooner, particularly as it entered a curved tunnel about 2,400 feet before where it finally derailed. The locomotive likely gained significant speed after exiting the tunnel and rolling down one of the railroad’s few straight stretches — an approximate 1,000-foot section of linear rail leading into the sharp bend where the locomotive left the tracks.
Moncrief said in the McCreary Journal that the train crew followed standard procedure, and the incident is likely the result of a perfect storm of circumstances.
If a mechanical issue rendered the locomotive incapable of generating enough air for its independent air brakes, the crew would rely on its handbrake and wheel chocks as alternatives. But temperatures were near zero on the day of the derailment and frost build up on the rail could have made it difficult for the wheel chocks to remain effective, according to the source. Moreover, an SW9’s handbrake only clamps down on a single brake shoe and isn’t meant to keep a locomotive stationary on steep grades. The source says the extremely cold weather could have also contributed to the locomotive’s mechanical issues.
While off-season track inspections would typically be operated with a motor car, the crew likely used the SW9 for the inspection because of its onboard heater.
Trains News Wire contacted Moncrief, asking if the foundation could confirm the cause of the runaway incident and to elaborate on the mechanical issue. “The McCreary County Heritage Foundation is working with its insurance carrier and will respond after all work with them is concluded,” Moncrief write in a Feb. 12 email response.
If you have an actual train…you do tie it down and TEST the brakes to see that they hold. A one minute test is considered adequate but sometimes fate catches up.
If the SW9 had been leading a passenger excursion down the 3% grade in these conditions and had the same mechanical failure as described, I guess the crew would have had to apply handbrakes on the cars to keep the train from running away?