SARDINIA, Ohio — Ten railcars of gravel derailed on a Cincinnati Eastern Railroad train Tuesday afternoon, with two cars overturning, according to WCPO-TV and WXIX-TV.
No injuries were reported. A grade crossing at Cowboy Road was blocked as a result of the derailment; Eastern Joint Fire and EMS District estimates the road will remain closed most of today (Wednesday, April 5) and possibly longer.
Sardinia is about 40 miles east-southeast of Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Eastern is a 69.5-mile Class III short line operating between Cincinnati and Peebles, Ohio, interchanging with Norfolk Southern in Cincinnati. Along with the New Castle Southern Railroad, it is part of the Homestead Rail Group.
Incident was probably at Corboy Road, not Cowboy Road.
So, are gonna get a Trains newswire entry for every mainline derailment now?
Sure glad Trains wasn’t watching our operation on the Rock island’s “Little Rock South” in 1977-78.
Is Cincinnatti Eastern the old Cincinnatti East Terminal?
Just curious, Peter, what issues would there be with gravel instead of coal?
Hopper cars haul a lot more than coal, iron ore, wood chips, etc.
If the loader knows what they are doing the type of load in a hopper car doesn’t matter as long as it is within the weight limit of the car. I heard of an instance when a 70 ton hopper was filled to cubic capacity with iron ore pellets and the center sill broke going down the railroad.
As Paul said this is not an unusual practice. Since the gravel is not loaded to the top you can’t tell what’s in the car. So one doesn’t know how often this is done. Good use for surplus hoppers.
JAWTOOTH! That’s his neck of the woods. I wonder if he has any coverage on his YouTube page?
Former NS trackage…There’s a guy named jawtooth that has C&E video(s) thru Sardinia Ohio available on youtube.
You Tuber Jawtooth covers the CE pretty closely and has an onsite report here:
https://youtu.be/C7UpRYdmg1o
His videos of the CE have shown various FRA violations over the years, so this is not surprising.
Gravel in what looks like coal cars. That has potential for issues…
Nothing unusual there. Back in the 80’s we used to get 80 car trains of ballast in 70 ton triple hoppers out of Tilcon in Connecticut to send all over Conrail 5 days a week. Never had a problem if the hopper doors were properly locked. Tilcon was good about not loading the car if the doors didn’t lock.
The problem is very overloaded cars. What is the density of coal v. gravel?