New on this blog, so I hope this is the correct place for this. I am looking for pictures/information on the February 12, 1974 derailment and LP explosion near Oneonta, NY for a college project. I have NTSB report, but cannot find any images. Any help for resources would be appreciated.
Have you tried contacting any local media in the Oneonta area, i.e. newspapers and TV stations?
There is a website called www.RailPictures.net but I don't know if they've got any shots of rail disasters on file, they usually just have "happy stuff", that is locomotive and rolling stock shots, some quite artistic.
Are you a "Trains" subscriber? You can try contacting the magazine for help. "Classic Trains" (a Kalmbach sister publication) may be of help as well.
Welcome aboard!
Suggest reposting this over on the "General Discussion - Trains Magazine" Forum at
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111.aspx
If you're lucky, you'll get a response from Larry/ "tree68" (a retired fireman/ emergency services guy in upstate NY), and / or Mike/ "wanswheel" (who is a wizard at ferreting out this kind of stuff from old publication archives); perhaps some others, too.
This happened on the Delaware & Hudson RR (for those who don't know).
Could you also post the link to the NTSB report that you mentioned, or at least the Railroad Accident Report ("RAR") number and date, etc., to help others find it ?
I did find an article on it from the Feb. 12, 2014 Oneonta The Daily Star. I couldn't access all of it to tell if there are any photos with it (behind a 'paywall' ?) - see:
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/man-recalls-catastrophic-train-wreck-years-later/article_2e637aa7-7f4a-5ada-93b3-e9f6204221c0.html
Still, it's enough to know that it's there so that you can pay the small fee and get a copy, as well as anything else they obviously have from back then.
See also the 3rd & following posts on this other website's thread:
http://forums.dhsdiecast.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1163374
If none of those work, I have a casual acquaintance who was new to the D&H at the time and worked on surveys of the scene and the main line restoration (a large portion of it slid down the embankment, IIRC). He's still in the region, and may have some photos from then (if he was able to take any - I remember him telling me about some of the extreme measures he had to take to keep his fingers from getting frost-bitten while running the survey instruments).
- Paul North.
Wilsda51,
Interesting post you have - college project on the subject of train derailment and disaster.
Having done a number of such academic projects I can see the timely subject. The transhipment of oil in America today as part of investment schemes in Wall Street commodities as well as regular business - the storage and movement of hazardous materials by rail is a new "politically correct" subject to write towards.
Since you have come to this sight to inquire about railroad research I assume you are moving towards an observation "that railroading transports highly dangerious products." Probably more so than most Americans realize. They all sleep well in their beds because THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT!
Tankers of clorine gas, tankers of amonia, tankers of gasoline and oil. Toxic gases, toxic chemicals by the ton. Steel railroad cars and engines heavy beyond belief passing at every rail crossing and past every neighborhood. Many American towns with story after story of parents, kids, cousins, killed at rail crossing accidents - all mourned and accepting the losses.
For that matter most Americans daily driving on the road surrounded by heavy truck freight haulers getting heavier. Such as the 150 car freeway fire and accident on I-94 in Michigan. Stories of double bottom tank trucks carrying hazardous commodities - and the average driver in his tiny car - DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT IT!
I assume you are writing towards some goal besides legal restrictions on railroad traffic about what can be safely handled. The Canadian rail disaster of late has provoked much unfavorable legal reaction in America that defies sanity.
Let me state unequivocally here - IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO LEGISLATE A TOTALLY SAFE WORLD! Too many things cannot be done in America now because of the "new age legal" and "politically correct" attitude that, the nation must be preserved from all harm - by the government - a task which no government ever concieved can possibly ever undertake!
Just my observations on hazardous materials as I lived next to the CN main line near Detroit most of my life. And yes I drove under the I-94 overpass moments before the CN train derailed and came down on the freeway. Which accident amazingly involved quite a mess but no fatalities. One must be at peace about these things.
And - yes Virginia it is a dangerous world and that comet is getting closer! Be at peace with it and live with it!
Dr. D
Uh Doctor D, I hope you don't have Willsda51 hiding under his bed after that post!
Oh and Willsda, don't forget to thank everyone here for their efforts. Common courtesy, ya know!
I remember when that happened. I lived in Binghamton at the time. Both the Press and WBNG TV had photos and videos. Perhaps if you contact one of them...
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=%28select+3972%29
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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