Conrail Wreck in Illinois

[Anonymous]

A few years ago(not sure maybe 8?) there was an accident on Conrails Indy-St. Louis mainline near Effingham, IL involving 3 trains. I never heard the cause or any other information on this. Does anyone know what happened? Thanks for any info.[:D]

[Tharmeni]

I finally got to ask my uncle about this and he said it was listed as "harmonic action" by a load on one of the trains.

I imagine others could fill us in on that.

[Anonymous]

3 trains were involved that is correct . a westbound struck the rear end of another westbound causing it to derail and foul the other main.
an eastbound train of bomp porportions struck the wreckage fouling its track. Harmonic imbalance no, human factor and serious mistakes yes. oh ya 5 people died

[Tharmeni]

The official paperwork on this accident lists "harmonic action" as the original issue, what that subsequently caused, I don't know. I'd not heard the term before.

[Anonymous]

maybe harmonic action means the motion of a train being struck and cars being popped out of line and fouling the adjacent track. i wouldn't call that harmony. i would call that a train wreck. WHo is your source?
After it all went down the local , divison and sysyem officials did some shady things with the eveidence. They went as far as shortening the audio tapes from the dispatchers office etc. so officially it may have been ruled as "harmonic balance" or something. Anything to keep the railroad from looking so bad , too bad lives were lost and the fire burned for a week or something wild like that

[Anonymous]

Basically what happened is a westbound Conrail train on December 22, 1995 hit the back of another westbound at 40-50 MPH. There is a 7-11 mile High speed siding at Effingham on the Conrail (CSX) main line. Another train eastbound hit the derailed cars on the siding and that train derailed. 53 cars derailed and 40 cars caught on fire. I remember seeing this wreck a few days after it happened. We drove up to Effingham and I remember as we went over a bridge I looked down and saw the tracks and a lot of cars that were all twisted up, torn apart, and thrown all over the place. If you want to see a picture of this wreck go to www.google.com/images and type in exactly this: conrail effingham . You'll get a picture of the wreck and the bridge in the picture is the bridge that we drove over.

[Tharmeni]

It is too bad people lost their lives and I know sometimes "official" reports are less than forthcoming. I suppose if there were wrongful death suits filed, that'd be the place to find out the real scoop.
Is that line still active or didn't they abandon it and now use the former NYC line through Mattoon?

[Anonymous]

"Tharmeni", that line is definetely active full of lots of CSX trains. The turnouts are remote controlled and they use CTC signals. Between CN and CSX there's about 50 trains a day there. Both railroads have their own yards at Effingham. That line has a lot of CSX traffic though. If you want to see CSX and CN at Effingham buy the DVD from Big "E" Productions that was videotaped in 2004.

[Tharmeni]

OK, eastbound out of Effingham, where does the traffic go to get to Indy? The old Pennsy line is cut west of Indy.

[mudchicken]

Go look at the NTSB Website RAB-096-4,

[MP173]

I may not be exactly correct on this but:

From St. Louis east is the old PRR mainline thru Effingham. The NYC line thru Mattoon was abandoned in the late 70's - early 80's. It was a very good line, but was longer.

I believe thru Terre Haute the line converts over to the ex NYC into Avon yard. I am not sure exactly where that happens, it may be on the west side of Terre Haute.

During the 70's I spent a lot of time in both E'ham and Mattoon. In fact, I just ran across a batch of 5x7's I took during spring break in 1975 featuring both those towns plus Centralia, plus the old B&O mainline in Southern Indiana. Fortunately my notebook with train details was in the box. It made a nice little present to myself.

ed

[Tharmeni]

Old B&O went through Olney, right? A few years ago CSX wanted to cut that line (never could figure out why) but I think it's still in use.

[ValleyX]

Five people died? I don't think so, I think it was three, I think the engineer and conductor on the eastbound died when they piled into the wreckage and I think the wreck happened in December, 1995. This calls for some research but I also don't think that the second westbound hit the first one that fast. They hit it fast enough to send cars out into the other main but the second crew, I've been told, called the first on the first westbound and told them something along the line of, "You probably know what we did." Problem was, they didn't follow procedure and rulebooks by providing protection against other traffic.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP173



During the 70's I spent a lot of time in both E'ham and Mattoon. In fact, I just ran across a batch of 5x7's I took during spring break in 1975 featuring both those towns plus Centralia, plus the old B&O mainline in Southern Indiana. Fortunately my notebook with train details was in the box. It made a nice little present to myself.

ed

Off topic I know, but, during those travels, you didn't happen to get any decent shots of the NYC bridge over the Vermillion river, in Danville, IL did you?

[Deaf21groovy]

Hello.... There was happened to my step dad but I need to know where it's exactly place was happened in Effingham, Illinois so I need to know what's their address so I can find there and put some flowers there... My stepdad Dennis McElroy he worked at conrail conductor I miss him so much yes he died also his 2 friends died I forgot that names... Please let me know about wheres place so I can find and visit there.. Thanksss....

[erikem]

Welcome to the forum!

Mudchicken's post above lists the NTSB report on the accident, which should have a pretty accurate location for the accident.

Sorry to hear about your stepdad.

- Erik

[inch53]

 I met a feller few year ago at a cook out was who a retired engineer and knew 1 or more of those who died. He told me that the 1’st train went into emergency and for some reason didn’t call it out. The 2’nd train had cleared the last signal thinking they had a clear track ahead. When they seen the 1’st one it was too late to stop and rear ended it. The rest has pretty well been covered. Three people died, the conductor in 1 and engine crew in the 2’nd. The engine crews in the 3’rd were injured, but not seriously, when they ran into the derailed cars.

This is the best I remember anyway.

Off topic now and maybe answer a couple questions.

As for trains headed to Indy now, they do use the NYC tracks in Terre Haute where the NYC turned NE from along the PRR around N 9’th or 10’th. From there they ran alongside the C&IE line from Danville up to 8’’th or 9’th avenue. NYC yard was just passed there and the main runs on towards Avon. C&EI cross both NYC and PRR about 10’th, all 3 use the same station [Pennsy’s]  

CSX run bout 20-25 trains a day now on the old PRR line. Before the recession 30-35 was not unheard of. I don’t know what the numbers are on the CN/IC thru Effingham anymore

The old B&O [CSX] line runs through Olney now carry bout 25-30 train a day. Some of those turn S at Vincennes IN and go to the Toyota plant Princeton IN or points further S. Vincennes get bout 50-60 trains a day through there, counting N-S trains on the old C&IE [CSX].

The NYC St Louis line is gone from west of the yard in Paris IL on and has been since 80 or 81 maybe 82. The Cairo line is also gone from Paris S. The last of it came out in 84 when the track were remove from W Union N. You can still most the ROW and some bridges for both along IL-16 and US- 1 S.

inch

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Several newspaper articles from back then - Dec. 22, 1995  and the days following - say from 1 to 2 miles west of Effingham.  Likely the bridge over the wreckage that is mentioned in one of the posts above is the US Rt. 40/ County Road 1250 bridge, in the middle of a shallow 'S-curve, at about these Lat./ Long. coords.: N 39.10166 W 88.59744 

I've not been able to retrieve that NTSB report, but I haven't exhausted all the possibilities yet, either. 

Please accept my condolences as well on the loss of your stepfather.   

- Paul North.  

[Deaf21groovy]

Hello again... Just wonder where can I find those gallery about happened? I couldn't find it nothing from google.com/image but hard to find that.. 

[MP173]

inch53:

Excellent summary of traffic patterns on the old PRR/NYC.  Can you clarify the old B&O line is now up to 25-30 trains daily?  I grew up near Olney and as of 4 years ago there were about 5 trains daily on the line, plus some coal movements.  At one time that line was considered for abandonment.  If they are in fact running 25 trains daily, there must have been considerable improvements to the line as the sidings were fairly short and the line was track warrent, plus it was a 40mph line. 

Not saying your wrong, but if it is running that many trains, I am heading down there soon.  

The recent CSX derailmnet involving 3 trains near Valparaiso is very similar to this Conrail tragedy.  Any links to the NTSB reports would be great.

 

Ed

[beaulieu]

I couldn't access the NTSB report by the reference number or the date, any clues, or perhaps they didn't maake it available for some reason.

[samfp1943]

beaulieu

" I couldn't access the NTSB report by the reference number or the date, any clues, or perhaps they didn't maake it available for some reason."

Ditto; On what Beaulieu said!

  If anyone can find and post a link it would be much appreciated!

[inch53]

ED

I can’t say for sure, the figure I gave is mostly from what I’ve come up with from our “not so local news” out of Terre Haute.

Vincennes, is wanting the 60 trains out of downtown or the state to build a grade separation of some kind.

Terre Haute, well, the mayor n other city leader’s just want the train out of town period it seems. Especially the old C&EI, which basically cuts the downtown in half with about 30 or so a day N-S.

 I just came up with a “best guess” from those stories for the old B&O.

If you get down that way let us know what numbers you come up with.

inch

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

There was a brief mention of this wreck in the front part of one of the early 1996 issues of Trains.  It accurately summarized the cause and mentioned that the wreck was around the US Rt. 40 overpass.  When I have more time I'll retrieve it again and retype it here, for what it's worth.    

Still no joy on finding an on-line version of the cited NTSB "RAB" = "Railroad Accident Brief" report, I believe ("RAR" are the long-form full "Railroad Accident Reports").   

- Paul North. 

[Dug Fin]

I was there a week after the wreck. It was at the US40  overpass. There were wrecked cars on either side of the overpass but the majority of the wrecked cars and the burned locomotives were in the east side of the overpass.

It was a truly awful site as it continued to smoulder a week after the crash and the smell of smoke filled the air.

[thebluebell]

My dad was freight conductor on that mainline Indianapolis -St.Louis run for PRR, & Conrail for more than 40 yrs., inluding Penn Central Passenger Conductor from 68-1976 but retired about 1985. I'm glad he didn't see it happen -- he probably knew those guys.