(The Indiana Gazette posted the following article on its website on October 18.)
RAYNE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Officials of Norfolk Southern Railroad investigated Friday to determine how six hopper cars loaded with coal jumped the tracks near the Allegheny Farm Service Co. shop along Route 119.
The cars near the end of a 100-car train bound for the Keystone Electric Generating Station near Shelocta derailed about 7:45 a.m. Friday on a stretch of track near a small creek called Pine Run.
The train made more noise than usual when it passed Allegheny Farm Service, according to Rich Smith, of Dilltown, a mechanic at the shop.
“I turned to look and they flipped over … one after another, almost in slow motion,” Smith said.
No one was reported to be injured.
“The engineers said they saw no problems at all,” a Norfolk Southern worker said. He declined to give his name and identified himself only as a trainmaster based at Pittsburgh.
Four of the cars tipped over and spilled their cargo, while two others tilted but stayed upright.
The railroad sent bulldozers and cranes from Washington County to “re-rail” the cars and clean up the coal, the trainmaster said.
He was one of about a dozen Norfolk Southern workers who were dispatched to inspect the scene and investigate the derailment.
The locomotives and about 90 cars ahead of the derailed ones continued to the power plant. Behind the ones that jumped the tracks, one freight car and two engines sat idle.
The Allegheny Farm Service shop opens for business each day at 8 .m. Smith said he usually arrives about 7:15 or 7:30 to prepare for work, but on Friday he forgot his key to the building. That positioned him to witness the accident while he waited for co-workers to arrive.
On these tracks, the Norfolk Southern trainmaster said, three trains daily carry coal to the power plant.
Employees at the Indiana office of Keystone-Conemaugh Projects, the company that manages the Keystone power plant, were unable to comment Friday afternoon on whether the interruption in the coal supply had any effect on power-plant operations.
This morning, the rails appeared to have been repaired and the derailed cars were gone. Railroad officials could not be reached for comment on what caused the derailment.