(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on May 1.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Less than a week after a train derailed and dumped 100 tons of coal in downtown Richmond, CSX Corp. had the track and bridge back in service.
CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said the first train ran shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday, two full days before the railroad initially expected to complete repairs.
The cause of last Saturday’s derailment in Shockoe Bottom remains under investigation, said Warren Flatau, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington.
The agency determined that the James River Bridge, which links rail lines in Shockoe Bottom and South Richmond, was not the cause of the accident.
CSX officials at the site Thursday said some of the 11 cars that left the track knocked loose a number of anchor bolts tying the metal bridge span to its concrete foundation. Crews spent much of the week performing round-the-clock repairs using cranes and other specialized equipment.
Rick Garro, assistant chief engineer at CSX, pronounced the bridge “structurally sound.”
The accident involved loaded CSX hopper cars, including one that fell about 8 feet and spilled about 100 tons of coal.
The back end of the line of coal cars veered off the bridge’s tracks on the north side of the floodwall near 16th and Dock streets.
The locomotive kept pulling the train, Garro said, which led to the damage to two 50-foot spans and about 500 feet of track. The damaged track extended about 150 feet over the James River, but no cars tumbled into the water, according to CSX and federal officials.
The repair work was done by a crew of 18 that started working Monday. On Wednesday, 10 more workers arrived to install new rails and ties, using a mechanical spiking machine.
By Thursday, welders were making specialized joints for the railroad’s signal system. Most of the coal and crumbled track had been picked up, with only a pile of cracked ties sitting off to one side. The smell of creosote hung in the air.
Garro, the CSX engineer, said that when he arrived last weekend, the damage looked “more spectacular” than it was.
“This one here was not up there in the rank of difficulty,” said the veteran engineer.
The railroad did not provide a cost estimate for the repairs and cleanup.
Randy Lowry, a plumbing designer who works nearby, said he was pulling an all-nighter Monday and saw the CSX repair crew working by spotlight around 3 a.m.
“I can’t believe they can build a bridge back in a week,” he marveled.