(The following article by Holly Hollman was posted on the Decatur Daily website on May 3.)
ARDMORE, Ala. — A biscuit may have averted disaster in Ardmore, a fire official said.
A CSX train headed from Chicago to Georgia derailed in downtown Ardmore on Sunday at 7:07 a.m.
Athens Fire Chief Cliff Christopher said the engineer stopped at City Cafe on First Street for a biscuit. A wheel bearing on one of the train cars had already started malfunctioning without his knowledge, Christopher said.
“The derailment happened real quick as soon as he started out after breakfast,” Christopher said. “The train wasn’t going that fast at that point. Had the engineer not stopped, the train would have been traveling through Ardmore at a minimum of 45 miles per hour. There’s no telling what could have happened.”
Meg Scheu, regional press spokeswoman for CSX, said she cannot give the cause of the derailment “until we’re certain what that cause is.”
Scheu said the investigation includes looking at the tracks, the train equipment and operating procedures.
Scheu said five cars derailed, cars 54 through 59. The train had two engines, 56 loaded cars and 16 empty cars going to Waycross, Ga.
Athens fire responded and assisted Ardmore Fire Department because the derailment caused a fertilizer product to spill. Athens operates the county’s only hazmat response unit.
“We were concerned it could be ammonia nitrate, which can be an explosive,” Christopher said, “but it was potash.”
Potash is non-hazardous and is in grain form, Christopher said. It spilled for one-fourth of a mile, he said.
Christopher said a wheel bearing turned loose, rolled under a train car and hit the hoppers, which is where the car off loads.
Christopher said a CSX crew from Nashville arrived by 11 a.m. with the equipment to move the cars. The chief said the derailed cars were in the middle of the train, and CSX let part of the train continue south and moved the remainder off the main track.
“One of the crew members said for every hour the track is down, it costs CSX $1 million,” Christopher said. “That track in Ardmore is part of the route between Mobile and Chicago.”
Scheu could not confirm that figure but said the two tracks through Ardmore are busy.
“The main line was clear,” she said, “and we got re-railed at 3:35 p.m.”
The Federal Railroad Administration said CSX had 348 derailments in 2004 and 28 in January. In Alabama, CSX had 20 derailments in 2004 and two in January.
Of the 2004 derailments in Alabama, one was in Limestone County off Mooresville Road. Ten cars derailed. That train was carrying grain.
Another 2004 derailment occurred in Decatur, when a train carrying hazardous material derailed on the Tennessee River bridge under the Wilson Street Northwest overpass.