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Coal train derails in McKeesport; crews clearing cars, replacing track

A coal train from West Virginia crashed in the middle of McKeesport with a loud boom Wednesday afternoon, derailing 25 cars and frightening residents.
“It just shook,” said James Clark. “I felt the shaking like it was an earthquake.”

McKEESPORT, Pa. — PHOTOS: McKeesport train derailment

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The crash happened at about 12:30 p.m. in the 200 block of Lysle Boulevard, behind the municipal building.
Live wires were knocked down, but no one was injured, according to Allegheny County officials.
Work to clear the derailment and spilled coal continued into Thursday. Damaged tracks were replaced and the remaining cars are being removed.
One side of the tracks has already been cleared enough that other trains are able to pass through the area.
“I'm just amazed how quickly -- for what a mess this was yesterday afternoon -- how quickly they got everything cleaned up,” McKeesport deputy fire chief Don Sabol said.
CSX, the company that owns the railroad, is still gathering information, but spokesman Rob Doolittle confirmed Amtrak also uses the section of rail that stretches from Pittsburgh to Baltimore.
The train was traveling from Grafton, W.Va., to Monaca, Doolittle said.
Two locomotives were pulling 126 cars, all of which were loaded with coal.
That's a relief for Sabol.
“We have tanker trains that go through here every day with all kinds of bad stuff on them,” he said.
The cause of the derailment is not yet known, Doolittle said. It was not immediately clear if the derailment will affect Amtrak operations.
A CSX crew was working on the track a few hundred feet away, near the McKeesport Bridge, before the crash happened. It’s unclear if their work had anything to do with the crash.

Bystanders’ reaction

People in downtown McKeesport heard the derailment before they saw it.

“I’m still shaking,” said Cori Powell. “I was like, what is that?”

Bicyclist Bob DeJohn missed the derailment by about 30 minutes.

“I just had lunch, so I just missed it,” he said.

Thankfully, he and other bicyclists were not on a section of the Great Allegheny Passage trail when several train cars fell right onto it.

“During the week, it's hundreds (of cyclists) every day going back and forth and it could have very easily injured someone there,” Sabol said.

One firefighter saw the whole thing happen.

"He witnessed … one of the trucks, the four wheels together on the train, turn sideways and was dragging, and it dragged like 100 yards or so before the train actually broke and the cars fell over," Sabol said.

CSX is now investigating what exactly caused this derailment. We do know it could be quite a while before this line reopens because part of the track must be rebuilt.

Previous history

After the derailment, 11 Investigates dug up records of the last train derailment that happened here, which was in 2014, just a few hundred feet away from Wednesday's crash.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration's database, that crash was caused by scrap metal falling from the gondola car carrying it.

While it's unclear if the two incidents are related, it's leading residents to question if this is a pattern.
"Shut all of the trains coming down through here and fix the problem now," said Troy Powell.

 

Cox Media Group

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