CRESCENT CITY, Fla. — Slow-moving freight trains began lumbering Sunday past the spot where an Amtrak Auto Train derailed in a deadly tangle of cars and rails, a wire service reports.
The original tracks in this northern Florida town were torn out by Thursday’s derailment, which killed four people and injured more than 150. The first coal train that moved through yesterday was on temporary rails, said Gary Sease, spokesman for CSX, the freight railroad that owns the track.
The 39-foot-long sections of temporary track can hold trains traveling no more than 10 mph.
The company plans to make improvements this week to allow the temporary tracks to withstand faster trains. About 28 trains run through there every day.
As the coal train passed, workers continued clearing downed trees and debris with bulldozers and cranes.
The Auto Train was headed for Washington with 418 passengers, 34 crew members and 200 autos stacked in 23 cars, when it derailed Thursday.
The lead engineer told the National Transportation Safety Board he saw a disjointed track about an hour into a trip from Sanford to Lorton, Va., and slammed on the brake.
Seconds later, a backup engineer in the locomotive cab and a conductor two cars back felt the train hit disjointed track and switched on emergency brakes as well, transportation safety board member George Black said.
The NTSB hasn’t said if its investigators have been able to verify if the track was misaligned. The lead engineer said the tracks were misaligned by about 10 inches, NTSB investigator Russ Quimby said.
The accident site has had chronic drainage problems that may have contributed to the crash, Black said.