(The following story by Reggie Sheffield appeared on The Patriot-News website on October 15. BLET Editor’s note: It is assumed the Norfolk Southern spokesman quoted in the article is describing remote control train operations when he references “electronic belts.”)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Firefighters contained about 200 gallons of diesel fuel that threatened to leak into Swatara Creek after a crash Monday in the Rutherford train yard, Swatara Twp. officials said.
Township fire chief Darrin Robinson said no one was injured when a Norfolk Southern Corp. yard engine struck a container hauler car about 5:15 p.m.
According to Robinson, the yard engine was moving east when it hit the rear car of a long line of container haulers on the same track. A container hauler is a car used to transport containers such as the ones mounted on tractor-trailers.
The heavy black engine ran partially over the end of the lower-profiled container hauler and came to rest in a position resembling a jackknifed tractor-trailer.
Emergency crews worked to contain the fuel leaking from the engine.
“That’s all been contained underneath where the locomotive hit,” Robinson said.
Emergency vehicles blocked traffic on Derry Street near 69th Street for more than three hours.
Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Norfolk Southern, said the crash is under investigation. He gave no timeline in which he expected the investigation to reach a conclusion.
Husband said rail workers communicate by using electronic belts that simplify directions in the busy and noisy railway yards.
He said yard cars — locomotives used to ferry cars through the yards — are commonly directed through the use of these belts.
Husband said Monday night that he could not immediately recall any incidents involving failures of the electronic belts and that he did not know whether Monday’s crash was the result of the failure of that device.
“That’s going to be part of our investigation,” he said.
“I’m not leaning towards anything. I am saying that I have not ruled out anything. We’re talking about something that happened less than three hours ago. Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Husband said.
Onlookers who gathered in the parking lot of The Wharf restaurant, directly across the street from the crash site, reported a heavy odor of diesel, but Robinson repeatedly emphasized that the spill had been successfully contained.
“Very little diesel fuel got into the storm water drain,” he said.
Linda Sakelaris, The Wharf’s owner, said everyone in her restaurant during Monday’s happy hour stopped what they were doing when they heard “a very, very loud explosion type of sound.”
“We heard it before we saw it,” Sakelaris said.
“It’s not unusual that you hear a lot of noise from the rail yard, but this was super loud,” she said.
Archie Flores was visiting his brother blocks away when he heard the train crash.
“We heard it. A bunch of us heard it,” he said.
“We just heard a boom, like a crash,” Flores said.