INRD train derailed

[MJBrinegar]

INRD train derailed up the road from me. I went and got a few pics.

[MJBrinegar]

Chopper view.

[Chessie8638]

Looks like a pretty good pile-up. Any word on the crew? Always thought the INRD was a low speed short line and had good track if they use the SD9043MAC's on the unit coal trains.

[arizonachris]

Wow, they are gonna be cleaning up that mess for a while. Dayumn. Brakes didn't work on the cars.

[MJBrinegar]

Crew is fine. It was just one guy 100 cars and last 35 derailed. The speed limit is 40 in this area. Here is the article from the local paper.

Garrison Chapel Road will be closed in both directions until at least Wednesday as crews haul 35 cars and spilled coal from a train that derailed between Ind. 45 and Eller Road Sunday afternoon.

Indiana Rail Road officials aren’t sure yet what caused the accident. Chief Deputy Mike Pershing with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office speculated the metal tracks might have changed shape in the heat, but could not give an official explanation Sunday. “Once in a while, things like that happen,” Pershing said, noting it could have been worse.

The train’s 100 total cars were carrying coal — not hazardous material — and the powerful engine did not derail with the more than 30 cars that lay twisted along both sides of Garrison Chapel Road. No surrounding houses were damaged, and no one was injured. The train’s engineer was the only person on board.

Still, Sunday’s derailment will take a considerable amount of cleanup, Pershing said. That will involve shoveling a mass of coal, towing more than two dozen cars and rebuilding parts of the railroad track and crossings.

Four reserve deputies will provide overnight security at the wreckage to “make sure no one plays around and gets hurt,” Pershing said. Residents on either side of the damaged track will be able to come and go, he said, but obviously cannot cross the tracks because of the spillage and cleanup efforts.

Terry Dodds, who lives nearby on Gardner Road, said she was reading on her back porch when she heard a loud, metallic noise that sounded like farm equipment being tossed around. Thirty minutes later, her dad called with the news he heard on a police radio.

“He told me a train derailed on Garrison Chapel, and it clicked,” Dodds said. “That was the noise I heard.”

Indiana Rail Road Co. spokesman Chris Rund said Sunday night that crews were “nowhere near determining” why the coal train derailed. He also could not speculate Sunday how long it will take railroad crews to clean up the mess, or how much it will cost. And he could not recall the last time a train derailed in Monroe or surrounding counties.

[Kali]

3500 tons of coal... nice cleanup contract for someone!

[arizonachris]

MJ, what are the tracks like in that area? More and more seems like a car came uncoupled, and without air brakes, they just kinda piled into each other? Yeah, Kali, nice cleanup contract for someone. Hope the semi doesn't run into an Amtrak.

[MJBrinegar]

Tracks tend to dip down. There are lots of caves in this area. That being said this is the first time for something like this to happen through here.

[steve_the_slim]

Wait, there was only one guy on the train? No conductor?

[MJBrinegar]

Yeah just the engineer.

[arizonachris]

Wait, there was only one guy on the train? No conductor?

Yeah, that's normal with BNSF out here, even with DMU's and a long string of double stack's. Just an engineer. Guys waiting on both ends, I suppose.