NORFOLK SOUTHERN DERAILMENT

In Ohio Continues To Burn

UPI reports the derailment occurred about 9 p.m., on Friday 3 Feb.2023 involving an NS train en route from Madison, Ill., to Conway, Pa. East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said the train was carrying “different quantities of products,” and said authorities knew the materials involved but declined to name them until it could be determined which cars were carrying which cargo. Drabick said no contamination of air or water with hazardous materials had been detected. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring the situation.

The railroad said in a statement, “Norfolk Southern has responded to a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. We mobilized our teams immediately, and personnel are currently on-site coordinating closely with local first responders. We will share more details as they become available.” The railroad has subsequently said there are 20 cars with hazardous materials in the train’s consist. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited, which uses the route where the derailment occurred, has been cancelled both today and tomorrow. Friday’s Capitol Limited departures from Chicago and Washington were terminated at Toledo and Pittsburgh, respectively, as a result of the derailment.

The mayor of the town of East Palestine has declared a state of emergency as a fire continues to burn, following Friday night’s derailment of about 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern train near the OhioPennsylvania state line.

WKBN-TV reports Mayor Trent Conaway issued the emergency declaration just before 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The move allows the village to exercise emergency authority while dealing with the crisis. Some 1,500 to 2,000 residents are under a mandatory evacuation order issued about 6:30 a.m. today; as of that time, only about 43 people were in a Red Cross emergency shelter set up in a local school. Other residents were told to shelter in place. A no-fly zone is in effect within a 1-mile radius of the scene.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced it was sending a team of investigators to the accident site. Video link

The Associated Press reported earlier this morning that firefighters had been pulled away from the scene because of continuing explosions. Unmanned devices were being used to stream water on the fire in the pre-dawn hours, while authorities waited to use drones to fully assess what cars were still burning.

Conaway said firefighters from three states had responded, given the location of the derailment about 51 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and within 20 miles of West Virginia’s northern panhandle. No deaths or injuries had been reported, he said. The fire created so much smoke it was visible on weather radar, the AP said. CBS News reported that Conaway said single-digit temperatures complicated the firefighting effort as trucks pumping water froze.

The mayor of the town of East Palestine has declared a state of emergency as a fire continues to burn, following Friday night’s derailment of about 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern train near the OhioPennsylvania state line.

WKBN-TV reports Mayor Trent Conaway issued the emergency declaration just before 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The move allows the village to exercise emergency authority while dealing with the crisis. Some 1,500 to 2,000 residents are under a mandatory evacuation order issued about 6:30 a.m. today; as of that time, only about 43 people were in a Red Cross emergency shelter set up in a local school. Other residents were told to shelter in place.

A no-fly zone is in effect within a 1-mile radius of the scene.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced it was sending a team of investigators to the accident site. The Associated Press reported earlier this morning that firefighters had been pulled away from the scene because of continuing explosions. Unmanned devices were being used to stream water on the fire in the pre-dawn hours, while authorities waited to use drones to fully assess what cars were still burning.

Conaway said firefighters from three states had responded, given the location of the derailment about 51 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and within 20 miles of West Virginia’s northern panhandle. No deaths or injuries had been reported, he said. The fire created so much smoke it was visible on weather radar, the AP said. CBS News reported that Conaway said single-digit temperatures complicated the firefighting effort as trucks pumping water froze.

Hazard Summary

 Most vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and vinyl products. Acute (short-term) exposure to high levels of vinyl chloride in air has resulted in central nervous system effects (CNS), such as dizziness, drowsiness, and headaches in humans. Chronic (long-term) exposure to vinyl chloride through inhalation and oral exposure in humans has resulted in liver damage. Cancer is a major concern from exposure to vinyl chloride via inhalation, as vinyl chloride exposure has been shown to increase the risk of a rare form of liver cancer in humans.

 EPA has classified vinyl chloride as a Group A, human carcinogen.

Over 30 million people from at least six different states are at risk! Several states along the Ohio River are now taking a closer look at the river's water quality after a Norfolk Southern Railway train derailed in Ohio earlier this month. Officials decided to conduct a controlled burn of the toxic chemicals contained within the train cars last week to prevent an explosion that could potentially cause more harm. The train cars contained human carcinogens like vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals. The chemicals began negatively impacting the environment, such as causing hundreds of fish to die in the Leslie Run stream in East Palestine, Ohio, and harming various other species, such as foxes, coyotes, and birds.

Environment activist Erin Brockovich is calling on the Biden Administration to "step up" after a trail derailment in eastern Ohio led to a controlled release of toxic chemicals. On February 3, a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, and cause a major fire near the track. Around 20 of the 50 cars that derailed were transporting hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, a toxic and flammable gas. Out of fear that the fire could cause an explosion, officials decided to conduct a controlled burn of hazardous materials, which began on February 6. However, the process still released some toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been monitoring the air and drinking quality of the surrounding area of the train derailment, and residents of East Palestine were allowed to return home on Wednesday after a mandatory evacuation had been ordered nearly a week prior. However, concerns still remain regarding the effects the release may have on residents and the surrounding wildlife. Two days after officials began the controlled release, a news outlet in Pittsburgh reported that hundreds of fish had been found "belly up" in the Leslie Run stream, and a wildlife rescuer in East Palestine told Newsweek that his animals were suffering a week after the derailment. As the New York Times reported on Monday, residents have also complained about suffering from headaches and "feeling sick" since the derailment, and two Pennsylvania residents have sued Norfolk

Southern to set up health monitoring for the area surrounding the train derailment, reported the Associated Press.

Last week, James Justice of the U.S. EPA said in a press briefing that the agency used "hundreds and hundreds" of data points before determining that it was safe for residents to return to the area, adding that there had been a "few detections right at the site" but that all were "below health screening levels." According to the National Cancer Institute, exposure to vinyl chloride is associated with liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, and lymphoma and leukaemia. Newsweek

First News was recently informed of three more chemicals that were on the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine just over a week ago — and we are being told that those chemicals are dangerous.

“We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist.

North Lima woman finds chickens dead Tuesday, questions chemical release from train

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Norfolk Southern stating that ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene were also in the rail cars that were derailed, breached and/or on fire.

Caggiano says ethylhexyl acrylate is especially worrisome. He says it’s a carcinogen and contact with it can cause burning and irritation in the skin and eyes. Breathing it in can irritate the nose and throat and cause coughing and shortness of breath. Isobutylene is also known to cause dizziness and drowsiness when inhaled. WKN First News Watch the latest update

THE OLDEST OPERATING SHAY - Delivered in November 1905 for the original Cass-based railroad, West Virginia Spruce Lumber Co.’s Greenbrier & Elk River R.R. Shay 5 is the oldest and longest-operating Shay at Cass and has never operated off of home rails. https://mountainrail.com/shay-5/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shay_locomotive

The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive.

Although the design of Ephraim Shay's early locomotives differed from later ones, there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays.

Shay locomotives were especially suited to logging, mining and industrial operations and could operate successfully on steep or poor quality track.

Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio built Ephraim Shay's prototype engine in 1880. In 1884, they delivered the first 3-cylinder (Class B) Shay, and in 1885, the first 3-truck (Class C) Shay. In 1903, Lima could claim that it had delivered the "heaviest locomotive on drivers in the world", the first 4-truck (class D) Shay, weighing 140 short tons. This was built for the El Paso Rock Island Line from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Cox Canyon, 50 km away over winding curves and grades of up to 6%. The use of a twotruck tender was necessary because the poor water quality along the line meant that the locomotive had to carry enough water for a round trip.

Lewis E. Feightner, working for Lima, patented improved engine mounting brackets and a superheater for the Shay in 1908 and 1909.

After the basic Shay patents had expired, Willamette Iron and Steel Works of Portland, Oregon, manufactured Shay-type locomotives, and in 1927, Willamette obtained a patent on an improved geared truck for such locomotives. These became known as Willamette locomotives. Since "Shay" was a trademark of Lima, strictly speaking it is incorrect to refer to locomotives manufactured by Willamette and others as "Shays". Six Shay Patent locomotives, known as Henderson-style Shays, were built by the Michigan Iron Works in Cadillac, Michigan.

According to Lima Locomotive Works in 1925, "The Shay Geared Locomotive has a wide and varied range of service, being used in industrial, quarry, contractors, logging, mining and plantation work; (also on branch lines and mountain sections of trunk-line railways). It is especially adapted to industrial railroads in and around large manufacturing plants. Its value as a switching engine is due to the rapidity with which it will accelerate a load and to its ability to spot cars in a minimum of time. It is designed to take any curve on which standard cars can be operated." The company emphasized its performance on "steep grades", "uneven track", and "track too light for a direct engine of the same axle load".

Shay locomotives had regular fire-tube boilers offset to the left to provide space for, and counterbalance the weight of, a two or three cylinder "motor," mounted vertically on the right with longitudinal drive shafts extending fore and aft from the crankshaft at wheel axle height.

These shafts had universal joints and square sliding prismatic joints to accommodate the swivelling trucks. Each axle was driven by a separate bevel gear, with no side rods. The strength of these engines lies in the fact that all wheels, including, in some engines, those under the tender, are driven so that all the weight develops tractive effort. A high ratio of piston strokes to wheel revolutions allowed them to run at partial slip, where a conventional rod engine would spin its drive wheels and burn rails, losing all traction. Shay locomotives were often known as sidewinders or stem winders for their side-mounted drive shafts.

Most were built for use in the United States, but many were exported, to about 30 countries, either by Lima, or after they had reached the end of their usefulness in the US.

Approximately 2,770 Shay locomotives were built by Lima in four classes, from 5.4 to 145t) between 1878 and 1945.

Four Shays, 600 mm gauge, were built lefthanded, all special ordered by the Sr. Octaviano B. Cabrera Co., San Luis de la Paz, Mexico.

Colourful like the spirit of the times and the new German wave - the German Federal Railways in the eighties. The locomotives wore bibs and the rolling stock showed several colour eras at the same time.

BR 103 210-1 with IC 710 in Niederheimbach May 22, 1989.

Old red, neurot, oriental red, green, blue, red-beige, turquoise-beige, black and white; The German Federal Railways were more colourful than the historically coloured memory would have you believe.

Between the black of the steam locomotives and the white of the ICE there was a whole range of colours for the rolling stock, which of course did not always appear consistent and, from an aesthetic point of view, caused all kinds of discussions. The older the institution, the quicker the outward appearance changed - even after the "Pop wagons" in the decade of the Pril flowers.

When someone goes on a journey, he can tell something. And if nothing, but also nothing unplanned happens - then even more so! On July 2, 1992, IC 738 "Teutoburger Wald" roared along the left bank of the Rhine from Bonn to Mainz, just like every day. Almost day here, almost night there.