General Discussion

I was watching Studio B on FoxNews and they had information as well as news footage on a coal train derailment in Georgia west of Atlanta. They didn't mention what railroad was involved.

Curiously one of the captions accompanying this footage said that the police reported that "no hazardous materials were involved." Wait a dogbone minute!; I thought that the main purpose of this "Cap and Trade" legislation currently before the congress was the first step towards driving the coal industry into oblivion because, according to B.O., coal is, by its very nature and because of its "carbon footprint", hazardous to your health just by being coal.

Like many others here I am a modeler. I will prognosticate that so sinister is coal that  eventually, after taxes has virtually destroyed the coal industry and put half of West "By God!" Virginia out of work, it will become illegal for us to model anything whatsoever dealing with coal which includes modeling steam locomotives. Legislation will surely be enacted prohibiting the modeling of anything dealing with coal which will be deemed to be more sinister than modeling anything dealing with trains arriving at Auschwitz!

    Or, as said on an 1820's anti-railroad poster -

'Rally, people, in the majesty of your strength, and FORBID this OUTRAGE.'

WoW! Another derailment! What's up with all this? I mean, first the CN derailment, then the DC thing, then that thing in France, now this! Looks like that all those rusted rails, old swithces, etc. have started to catch up with us. hope not.

A summary only from media reports. This accident on a CSX line in Union City, Ga. (about 8 miles SW of the center of Atlanta airport) derailing 18 coal cars. The derailment appears to be on a siding.. At this location two CSX lines run parallel for about 2 miles (500ft apart). The ex  ABC (ACL) line Atlanta - Manchester - JAX (has a siding) and the A&WP subdivision ATL - Lagrange - Montgomery.(also has a siding).  Also each line interconnects with the other in both directions at this location.. From the Aerial  TV it appears to be on the  ATL- Manchester line  in between the interlocking connecting these two lines but am not sure. This accident should not cause any problems for any intermodals to/from the south of the Fairburn intermodal terminal however north of the terminal unknown at this time. 

BTW all these tracks have had complete rebuilds in the last four years so track conditions should not be the cause.

blue streak 1:

A summary only from media reports. This accident on a CSX line in Union City, Ga. (about 8 miles SW of the center of Atlanta airport) derailing 18 coal cars. The derailment appears to be on a siding.. At this location two CSX lines run parallel for about 2 miles (500ft apart). The ex  ABC (ACL) line Atlanta - Manchester - JAX (has a siding) and the A&WP subdivision ATL - Lagrange - Montgomery.(also has a siding).  Also each line interconnects with the other in both directions at this location.. From the Aerial  TV it appears to be on the  ATL- Manchester line  in between the interlocking connecting these two lines but am not sure. This accident should not cause any problems for any intermodals to/from the south of the Fairburn intermodal terminal however north of the terminal unknown at this time. 

BTW all these tracks have had complete rebuilds in the last four years so track conditions should not be the cause.

Additional information from media reports.  The train was carrying cars in the  BNBX-120xxx    series. It had been traveling south from ATL on the A&WP subdivision. It passed the short track that leads from the old ACL line went about 1 mile and diverged onto another short track (1/2 mile?) that leads to the ACL line. This south short track leads to the siding on the ACL route. Somewhere short of where the diverging track leads onto the ACL siding it started derailing and tore up the this lead to the siding, the siding, and the ACL line main track. Now this lead was installed shortly after the merger when the A&WP became part of Family Lines (?) or CSX (?) and to my knowlege has not been upgraded since. 

This tied up the A&WP sub north of Fairburn until accident investion allowed the rear end part of which was stopped on the A&WP  to be removed; and the Manchester sub as well. Saw a rather large surfacing machine proceeding north on the A&WP at 19:55 waiting for an intermodal from Fairburn. Traffic on the A&WP restarted about 03:00. ACL still shutdown as of  07:00.

Justin there is derailments every day but most never get air time its like rail crossing accidents  there is lots of them and no air time some dealing with death others just bent metal. so dont be alarmed from hearing these items. It isbecause somebodys slow newsday became your talk of the day. 

R. T. POTEET:

Curiously one of the captions accompanying this footage said that the police reported that "no hazardous materials were involved." Wait a dogbone minute!; I thought that the main purpose of this "Cap and Trade" legislation currently before the congress was the first step towards driving the coal industry into oblivion because, according to B.O., coal is, by its very nature and because of its "carbon footprint", hazardous to your health just by being coal.

 

The Des Moines paper had an interview sometime back of NASA's James Hansen.  He's a big proponent of human caused global warming and climate change.  He's also originally from Iowa, hence the interview, but I don't claim him.  Anyway, he mentioned the coal trains running across Iowa.  He said he calls them, "death trains."

Jeff  

jeffhergert:

The Des Moines paper had an interview sometime back of NASA's James Hansen.  He's a big proponent of human caused global warming and climate change.  He's also originally from Iowa, hence the interview, but I don't claim him.  Anyway, he mentioned the coal trains running across Iowa.  He said he calls them, "death trains."

Jeff  

jeffhergert:

The Des Moines paper had an interview sometime back of NASA's James Hansen.  He's a big proponent of human caused global warming and climate change. 

jeffhergert:

The Des Moines paper had an interview sometime back of NASA's James Hansen.  He's a big proponent of human caused global warming and climate change.    

       Somehow,  I missed the NASA press release detailing just how much gunk they were putting into the air every time they fire one of their toys at Cape Kennedy.     

I thought it was CSX!

wabash1:

Justin there is derailments every day but most never get air time its like rail crossing accidents  there is lots of them and no air time some dealing with death others just bent metal. so dont be alarmed from hearing these items. It isbecause somebodys slow newsday became your talk of the day. 

Oh I bet! There are probably lots of minor thing like that every day of the week. I also probably makes the already railroad deprived public evan more "Scared" of the railroad. I've been thinking about writing NBC or CBS and asking them to do a story, it doesn't have to be a long thing, on the scuesses of the modern railroad in the US. You know,  the 16,997 trains a day that don't have major issues.