(The following story by Wynne Everett appeared on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review website on January 6.)
BELL, Pa. — Two Norfolk Southern Railroad employees managed to escape when their train derailed near Apollo and plunged into the Kiski River before dawn yesterday.
The company has not determined the cause of the derailment, but one Westmoreland County 911 official suspects that the rain-saturated ground gave way.
The men — a conductor and an engineer — were not seriously injured, said Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband, who refused to identify them. The conductor was unhurt and the engineer suffered a bruise, according to Husband. Neither needed to go to the hospital. They were the only two people on board the train, he said.
How they managed to escape as the train left the tracks and fell into the rain-swollen Kiski isn’t known, Husband said.
“I don’t know the details. All I know is they got out and they did not get wet,” Husband said.
The railroad will investigate why the three engines and first 13 freight cars on the 107-car train left the tracks at about 5:20 a.m., Husband said.
The train was headed for Altoona, loaded mostly with corn, Husband said. It derailed about a mile upstream from the Apollo Bridge, sending two of its three engines into the Kiski River.
The three engines were carrying about 3,000 gallons each of diesel fuel, some of which spilled into the river and created a slick that reached half way across the river at the Apollo Bridge.
Volunteer firefighters stretched booms across the river to try to contain the fuel so it could be vacuumed from the surface.
“I think it’s in everyone’s favor that the water is swift-moving,” Westmoreland 911 spokesman Dan Stevens said. “It will get carried farther, but it will dissipate faster with this much water.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection was monitoring the water quality of the river yesterday, spokeswoman Betsy Mallison said.
Some of the train’s cars were carrying hazardous materials, but they were in the back of the train and remained on the tracks, Stevens and Husband said.
The cars contained benzine and sodium hydrochloride, according to Husband.
“They were a mile-and-a-half from the derailment,” he said.
Stevens said water-logged ground under the train tracks might have caused the derailment.
“If I were a betting man, that’s where my money would be,” he said.
Husband refused to speculate on what caused the derailment and said railroad officials will use a process of elimination in their investigation. They’ll examine the operation of the train, the equipment and the tracks, he said.
“You just start weeding out things,” he said. “Sometimes, the cause is very obvious and sometimes it may take months.”
Norfolk Southern planned to take the undamaged cars away — in the opposite direction of the derailment — with a replacement engine yesterday. Railroad officials hoped to have the track repaired by today, Husband said.
The track, which is part of Norfolk Southern’s Conemaugh line, carries about 20 trains per day, mostly hauling coal, he said. While the track is being repaired, the railroad will use other routes, he said.