PIEDMONT, Ala. — Thirty-seven cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed this morning (Thursday, March 9) in rural Calhoun County near the town of Piedmont, shortly before the railroad’s CEO began testimony before Congress on the railroad’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
No hazardous materials were involved in the Alabama incident, which occurred about 6:50 a.m. Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said there were no injuries were involved, and told the news site Al.com that the railroad had “already amassed a large crew of people, and they have cranes, and they are feverishly working.”
At a midday press conference, NS spokesman Connor Spielmaker said two of the cars involved had previously carried hazardous materials and contained residue of those materials but had not leaked and there was no public risk. The NTSB was sending investigators to the scene.
Murphy’s Law is in play here the old adage that if something will go wrong, it will go wrong and right now the Norfolk Southern is either enduring a run of bad luck or the railroad has been cursed. Like anything else be it a railroad, a company or even in our personal lives, we have those moments at times when the sky falls or the roof caves in on us in so many ways. The Norfolk Southern is going through such times right now. Back in the late 1940s amd early 1950s, the Long Island Railroad endured a string of derailments inluding two horrific collisions of commuter trains in Richmond Hill and Rockville Center plus a few freight drerailments. all while the LIRR was under the ownership of the then Pennsylvannia Railroad who did nothing to correct or improve the operations of the LIRR. But over the years later on, the LIRR bounced back to become a premier commuter railroad. Today the Norfolk Southern is going through rough times but eventually they will come out of it and be a much better managed and safer railroad. The same could be said about the White Star Line. They lost two of their prize liners the Titantic and the Britannic and cofidence in large ocean liners dropped with the traveling public. But the White Star Line survived their rough period and came out stronger and better. Sp goes with NS
Joseph C. Markfelder
The two LIRR wrecks were rear-end collisions in cab signal territory. The cab signals should have prevented the collisions, or at least limited them to 20 mph, but PRR (and LIRR) had beeen allowed to delete the speed control function and clearly the cab signal displays were ignored.
These two collisions were around the same time as two fatal rear end collisons on PRR, also in cab signal territory. One was between a regular train and a troop train carrying soldiers called up for the Korean War. The other was just West of Bryn Mawr, near Philadelphia. As a result, the ICC mandated the speed control function be installed on PRR passenger locomotives with cab signals.
White Star survived the sinking of these 2 grand ships but was never the same. The company did OK, but not great financially for a number of years but had to eventually merge with the Cunard Line at the beginning of the depression. So I wouldn’t say they came out better and stronger.
Seen a drone view of the wreck and in the pile there was at least one of the new NS coil cars.
Is this derailment affecting intermodal trains out of Atlanta going to KCS in Wylie, TX?
Would like to know the car count on this train. Springfield was 212. I think E. Palestine was somewhere north of 150.
Getting beyond rhetoric, the photo does provide some limited clues. First, the inside rail on the curve is missing, most likely pulled over by the hoppers. This would possibly indicate a stringline as the initial cause of the derailment.
Second, the mass of cars starts at the end of the hoppers. The cars are compressed and splayed perpendicular to the rail. This tells me the train was travelling towards the photographer.
And finally, there is a hopper car on top of the far hopper laying parallel to the rail. This is another clue that a stringline initiated the derailment.
This is my best guess based on the limited information in the photo. However, Monday morning quarterbacking is always spot on. My hope is that the NTSB can observe and record the site before NS starts to clean the site.
Are all these major derailments a recent phenomena on NS? Is anyone else having this level of problem but maybe in some areas far from populated places or not affecting Amtrak. I suspect it has to do with the very foolish whole sale destruction of the labor and supervisory forces in the last few years, but I’d really like to see some facts.
The freight train derailment affected operations of Amtrak’s ‘Crescent’, Norfolk Southern predecessor Southern Railway’s former darling of trains. While Amtrak No. 20 was cancelled before leaving New Orleans, No. 19 was truncated and turned yesterday (Thursday 9 March 2023) as No. 20 in Atlanta and is now scheduled to arrive in New York this evening. On Friday 10 March 2023 6:35 am CST, the Crescent Route is back to normal.
I guess if the world needed to know that PSR has gone too far, it had to happen to someone. In this case it is NS that is going to be the whipping boy. I also noticed the AAR is starting to get more active with the safety press releases. I guess something woke them up from their long slumber. Accepting all those lobby dollars in the beltway from the hedge funds made you a little sleepy perhaps? No proof of course, but asking for a friend.
It shouldnt take an East Palestine before the AAR finds religion.