Posted on 02/13/2014 2:26:42 PM PST by thackney
A 120-car Norfolk Southern Corp train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards.
There were no reports of injury or fire after 21 tank cars came off the track and crashed into a nearby industrial building at a bend by the Kiskiminetas River in the town of Vandergrift.
Nineteen of the derailed cars were carrying oil, four of which spilled between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of oil, Norfolk Southern said. The leaks have since been plugged. The two other derailed tank cars held liquefied petroleum gas.
The train, which originated in Chicago, was destined for an asphalt plant in Paulsboro, New Jersey, owned by NuStar, a NuStar spokeswoman said.
The clean-up was under way on Thursday as a heavy winter storm gathered pace, leaving about 4 inches (10 cm) of snow on the ground by midday Thursday. An investigator from the Federal Railroad Administration was en route to the scene, the railroad regulator said.
"I heard a strange noise, a hollow, screeching sound," said Ray Cochran, who watched the train derail from his home on a hill above the tracks. "I looked out the window and saw three or four tankers turn over and one of them ran into the building."
The train, which was also carrying food products, crashed into a track-side building owned by MSI Corporation that makes metal products.
All employees had been accounted for, said Sandy Smythe, a public information officer with Westmoreland County's public safety department, which includes Vandergrift borough.
MSI declined to comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
Buffett again! When will someone do something about all Buffett’s oil spills?
While I’m no fan of Obama crony Warren Buffet, there have been plenty of pipeline ruptures also.
None of these systems are ever going to be 100% failsafe.
It’s all reasonable risk in my book.
I have read that tank cars are running over the design weight on the axles. That needs to be stopped.
P-I-P-E-L-I-N-E
If only we had a safe pipeline to carry petroleum!
How did that train derail on the inside of the curve. Doesn’t make sense. Centrifugal forces not in play here?
winter weather, ice, stuck switch and/or icy rail(s)
leaks plugged; “environmental” concerns mitigated
we can move on now
The irony of oil tank cars derailing in the Keystone State is delicious.
I wonder where the train was headed. There is a lot of CSX oil tanker train activity in our vicinity (through Selkirk) headed to the Port of Albany. It has greatly stepped up recently. I wonder if there is a democrat/Cuomo connection - I didn’t know about the Buffet train ownership connection...
Hmmm Anyone know anything more about this?
Local interest ping.
time for more pipelines!
Train handling... There was probably a grade there or the locomotive engineer was was power braking through the curve... envision the train as a rope you are pulling around a curve... The more tension on the rope the more lateral force to the inside it will have
In that picture, the wheels may have dropped inside the gage (wide gage)...and then the drawbar pull “stringlined” the train.
Great explanation! Didn’t even occur to me,then again I’m no train man!
I think Burlington-Northern is part of his Birkshire-Hathaway holding company. I don't think CSX is part of his empire, but no doubt that BN hauls a lot of oil out of the upper midwest.
I thought I read asphalt plant in New Jersey.
How convenient.
Wonder if it was purposeful.
they will need to put good, modern security techniques in place. There are radicals who will without question sabotage these trains, and there will be deaths. The leftie radical environmentalists will stop at nothing.
“Somebody should invent a system of underground pipes that can transport this type of product efficiently and safely.”
And bypass the railroads. Which is exactly why such a system was invented and installed by J. D. Rockefeller at the beginning of the 19th century in his fight against the railroads who kept jacking up their rates for transporting kerosene.
Funny thing though. Looks like we’re right back to that same situation all over again, except this time the White House is squarely on the side of the current railroad robber barons in thwarting pipeline construction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.