(The Washington Post published the following story by Don Phillips on its website on July 2.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 116-year-old water main apparently did not burst until almost three hours after a freight train derailed and caught fire inside a Baltimore tunnel two years ago, but longtime leaks from water mains and a storm sewer line had undermined the area and left large underground voids, according to information released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The documents, released without comment or analysis, help shed some light on whether the 40-inch cast-iron water main broke first and caused the derailment or whether the derailment and fire broke the water main.
However, the documents did not conclude whether the July 2001 derailment in the Howard Street tunnel was by a track, tunnel or water problem.
The documents noted no rule violations by the crew, who also tested negative for alcohol and drugs. There was no indication of a problem with the freight equipment or evidence of a pre-wreck rail break, and train simulations showed no obvious way that train-track dynamics — perhaps a car rocking off the tracks at a dip in the rails — could have caused the wreck.
Life along Howard and Lombard streets in downtown Baltimore was disrupted for weeks after the derailment as smoke from a raging fire poured from each end of the tunnel and from manholes in the street. Games at Camden Yards, at the western tunnel portal, were canceled for three days, and damage from the incident was estimated at $1.9 billion.
The derailment happened at 3:08 p.m. as an eastbound 60-car CSX Transportation freight train was pulling through the 8,721-foot tunnel at 24 mph. The crew reported feeling the train jerk and its speed slow before emergency air brakes stopped the train in the tunnel.
Following CSX rules, the crew uncoupled the locomotives and moved them outside the eastern tunnel entrance at the old Mount Royal Station to allow diesel fumes to clear from the tunnel before further investigation. The workers were unable to contact the CSX dispatcher in Jacksonville, Fla., until they were outside the tunnel, but the conductor used his personal cell phone to call a local CSX official before leaving the tunnel.
While the crew waited for the fumes to clear, the situation deteriorated. At 3:34 p.m., just seven minutes after the locomotives left the tunnel, the director of hotel security at the Holiday Inn above what turned out to be the derailment site called CSX police in Jacksonville to report “heavy vibrations” on several floors of the hotel. Smoke began pouring out of the tunnel entrances from a fire apparently fed by three tank cars of hazardous materials.
There was suspicion at the time that the 40-inch water main, reportedly laid in 1885, had broken as the train went through the tunnel.
However, the safety board said water levels at three city reservoirs did not start dropping until after 6 p.m., about three hours after the derailment. A security camera also showed that water began to break through the street surface at Howard and Lombard about 6:19 p.m.
Other water and sewer pipes pass through the area, and investigators found that a 12-foot section of a storm drain was missing. They were never able to determine why the segment was missing, but the safety board documents say water was flowing from the pipe and “a periodic ‘flushing’ sound could be heard.” Accompanying each flushing sound was “a flow of cool, damp air that produced a vapor cloud at the opening.”
Subsequent excavation found several large voids around the tunnel in the vicinity of the pipes. One hollowed-out area around the storm sewer pipe, at the southwest corner of Howard and Lombard, required 10 cubic yards of stone to fill. Along Howard between Lombard and Pratt streets were several other large voids that required another 10 cubic yards of fill material.
Large deposits of sand were found on the rail bed, and there was a hole in the tunnel wall that could have been caused by a sudden rush of water.