Not The Best Way To Wash Your Rail Cars

[MalahatTwo7]

Train Cars To Be Pulled From Anacostia River
Workers To Begin Cleanup

POSTED: 6:39 am EST November 14, 2007
UPDATED: 8:04 am EST November 14, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Workers will head out to the Anacostia River Wednesday to begin pulling out seven train cars that plunged into the water after a CSX train derailment last week.

The cars filled with coal were part of a freight train that got loose from the nearby Benning railyard. CSX officials told News4 that once the train made it to the Sousa Bridge near Pennsylvania Avenue, the bridge -- which was under construction -- collapsed, causing the derailment.

CSX officials told News4 that the train rolled more than a quarter mile before plunging into the river because its brakes weren't secured.

Officials have said removing the train cars from the water is too dangerous because the bridge is in serious disrepair. Officials also said that moving the submerged train cars could stir up 100 years of sediment settled in the river, creating environmental problems.

Workers have put curtains in the water to try to contain any sediment that is stirred up during the cleanup, News4's Megan McGrath reported.

No one was hurt in the incident and officials have ruled it an accident.

Previous Stories:
November 12, 2007: Workers Clean Up CSX Train Derailment Site
November 11, 2007: CSX: Brakes Caused Train Derailment
November 10, 2007: Clean Up, Questions Begin In Train Derailment

Copyright 2007 by nbc4.com.
====

Anyone see the oxymoron in this story, about pulling the cars up.... or not???

[nmfire]

Ooops. Is that what brake retainers are for?


Seven hoppers full of coal careen into the river, the bridge falls into the river,
and they are worried about stirring up dirt?

[DianeC]

Seven hoppers full of coal careen into the river, the bridge falls into the river,
and they are worried about stirring up dirt?

You have not read enough about or seen the Anacostia River. :eek:

[MalahatTwo7]

You have not read enough about or seen the Anacostia River. :eek:

Hheheehee no kidding there. :eek:

BTW Diane:

Join Date: Dec 1998
Location: Maryland (but always a Long Islander first)
Posts: 994

You better watch out. You'll make the 1000 post mark before you know it. LOL :D:D

[hwoods]

A few random thoughts on this..........

The "100 years" of sediment that they don't want to stir up probably contains a LOT of "Heavy metals" such as Lead, Mercury, etc.

The Bridge is part of a rail link thru the nation's capital that keeps freight traffic away from Union Station, and out of the way of Passenger and Commuter Trains.

Recently, a Bridge Inspection turned up some serious problems that required the line to be shut down, and thru traffic rerouted, until repairs could be made. Some work had been done, with more scheduled.

The bridge is equipped as a draw span, but with little river traffic, the draw machinery wasn't used much. The repair work seemed to be centered around the draw section, and that point looks to be where the derailment happened.

It was very fortunate that Bridge repair crews were not working when the incident occured...........

There is a nearby area where coal loads for area users are parked, until they can be moved to the Customer's unloading facilities. The cars involved were parked here, but how they managed to take off is still under investigation.

More info comes along, I'll pass it on.

[hwoods]

Ooops. Is that what brake retainers are for?


Not exactly. Retainers can be manually adjusted to allow more air to be held in the Train's brake lines, and hold back on the volume of air that is released when the Brakes are on. This is normally used when taking heavy loads Down a mountain. When Cars are parked, there is a manual brake that is set on each car, independent of the air brake system.

[nmfire]

Ah, I always figured they just applied the brakes and set the retainers when parking the cars without something else holding them. I suppose it would make sense to have some kind of manual brake other than the retainers though.

Suffice to say, someone didn't do something they were supposed to do.

[hwoods]

Ah, I always figured they just applied the brakes and set the retainers when parking the cars without something else holding them. I suppose it would make sense to have some kind of manual brake other than the retainers though.

Suffice to say, someone didn't do something they were supposed to do.

This wouldn't be the first time manual brakes have been released by vandals, if it turns out that way.

[nmfire]

Well if that does happen, i would hope the runaway cars then hit them at nearby grade crossing.

[doughesson]

You don't have that problem with barges.They're already in the water.
Ironically,CSX owns ACBL-American Commercial Barge Lines,Always Crying and Bi***ing Line,Another (male chicken)Biting (female who loves other females),you get the idea.
What irks me about that outift is how CSX tried applying railroad terminology to the river after buying out ACBL-switchboat instead of harbor tug,switchyard instead of fleet.There was a near riot about it.The railroad cannot move product in as massive quantities as the river so they work to get restrictions on lock sizes to limit tow sizes.
If they needed barges,I know of a whole bunch fleeted up here in Memphis that are usually used on the Upper Mississippi routes that they can transfer.

[hwoods]

You don't have that problem with barges.They're already in the water.
Ironically,CSX owns ACBL-American Commercial Barge Lines.
If they needed barges,I know of a whole bunch fleeted up here in Memphis that are usually used on the Upper Mississippi routes that they can transfer.


Doug - Things that slow, or is it a seasonal thing?? I figured that anything that floated would be used in Grain service this time of year.:confused:

[doughesson]

Doug - Things that slow, or is it a seasonal thing?? I figured that anything that floated would be used in Grain service this time of year.:confused:


I've been wrooo(chokes)-Lemme try again.I've been wroowrooo(chokes).Dang it.I was not right at times in the past and I may be again.
Yes,there's a lot of barges here in Memphis.Listening to the radio traffic for another harbor outfit down at McKellar Lake,they've been hopping to keep up with the docks loading outbound grain and boats waiting to pick them up.
I misread the intentions as usually by now,it's starting to ice over.I'd been off the river for about 9 years before May of this year and have been relearning how the weather on the Upper Mississippi affects our local traffic patterns.
Even my outfit that usually handles only rock and container barges has been moving some grain barges.Since we are 4 miles upstream from the Wolf River and the docks behind Mud Island,it's easier for us to go get barges than it is for the other outfit to run the 10 river miles against an 8 mph current to get them.When we have 4 or 6 in our fleet,they'll bring more empties to the docks and come to our fleet for the loads.It saves numerous gallons of fuel each time,which adds up since off road diesel is over the $3.00/gallon mark.