(The following article by Warren Dillaway was posted on the Ashtabula Star-Beacon website on September 25.)
WAYNE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A coal train bound for the Ashtabula docks never made it Sunday afternoon as a derailment sent cars flying off the tracks.
“It (the train) was on it’s way to Ashtabula with 105 cars,” said Rudy Husband, director of public relations for Norfolk and Southern Railroad. He said it derailed at 4:55 p.m. and the cause of the crash is under investigation.
Husband said 24 cars were off the track and 20 on their sides following the derailment that occurred near Route 322.
A variety of people visited the derailment site, only to be sent away by railroad personnel. What they saw were many cars laid out on the east side of the north and southbound tracks, about a half mile west of Hayes Road.
“When we got down here the fire trucks were sweeping the coal and gravel from the road,” said Pam Gosnell of Pierpont Township. She said the family heard of the derailment on the scanner and drove down from Pierpont Township.
Gosnell said there were tracks that were visibly curved near the derailed cars.
Train cars were visible from Hayes Road, for about a half-mile south of the Route 322 intersection. Another set of cars were standing upright north of the intersection with several hundred yards of open track between them.
Husband said the tracks were expected to open late Sunday evening. “We’ll deal with the coal later,” he said.
Firefighters from Andover and Wayne townships were called to the scene and reported that there were no injuries in the derailment. An Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department deputy was also on the scene, Gosnell said.
Joe Semai, chief of the Wayne Township Fire Department, said there were no hazardous materials involved in the crash so firefighters swept gravel from the tracks and left the scene.
Railroad employees arrived on the scene in a variety of vehicles to begin the cleanup operations and investigation into the cause of the derailment.