Officials: Broken rail missed on 2 inspections caused fiery West Va. train derailment

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Oct 9, 2015, 11:29 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Associated Press via Richmond Times-Dispatch

Posted: Friday, October 9, 2015 9:33 am
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, W.Va. (AP) — Federal investigators say a broken rail that wasn't found on two previous inspections led to a fiery oil train derailment in southern West Virginia in February.

The Federal Railroad Administration on Friday announced the results of its investigation into the Feb. 16 derailment during a snowstorm in Mount Carbon.

The FRA says the broken rail resulted from a vertical split head rail defect. The problem was missed by CSX Corp. and a contractor on two separate inspections in the months leading up the accident.

The CSX train was carrying 3 million gallons of Bakken crude oil. Twenty-seven of the train's 109 cars derailed. Twenty cars leaked crude oil.

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/ap/business/article_29f7adae-68ca-51a9-8075-35f02e319a64.html

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Friday, October 9, 2015
Feds say broken rail caused Fayette County train derailment
By Lori Kersey, Weekend Editor



Gazette-Mail file photos
Derailed train cars burn on the evening of Feb. 16, 2015, after a CSX oil train derailed in Fayette County. On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration said the derailment was caused by a broken rail, which was missed in two inspections in the months before the derailment.



Emergency officials walk by the site where fire from a CSX oil train derailment destroyed a Fayette County man’s truck, house and garage near Mount Carbon on Feb. 16, 2015.

February's derailment of a CSX oil train in Fayette County, which sparked a fire that destroyed one home and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents, was caused by a broken rail, an investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration has shown.

The FRA, the lead agency in the response to and investigation of the derailment, has planned a 9:30 a.m. news conference to discuss the results of its investigation.

The CSX train, hauling 107 tank car loads of Bakken Shale crude oil from North Dakota to a transportation terminal in Yorktown, Virginia, derailed in Adena Village near Mount Carbon and Deepwater around 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, setting one house on fire and causing numerous tank cars to burn and explode.

The broken rail was the result of a vertical split head rail defect, which CSX and its contractor, Sperry Rail Service, missed twice in the months leading up to the incident, according to the FRA.

Here's what a vertical split head looks like:

FRA Rail Defect Remedial Action Table



Another view:

Vertical Split Head Detection

[Kelvin Mace]

1. One more reason corporations shouldn't inspect themeselves.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. A contractor missed it too.

CSX had not only its own track inspectors looking at the tracks. The Sperry Rail Service had gone over the territory as well.

Also, because there is passenger service on that line, inspection is a regularly occurring event. The Federal Railroad Administration track inspector occasionally rides along with the CSX track inspector to keep track of things (so to speak).

I haven't seen it in years, but the Sperry Rail Service car goes all the place looking for problems with tracks. If it wasn't the car that went over the territory, Sperry also has other machinery to examine tracks.

Applied Technology



Sperry Rail Car, Sunday, November 2, 2003 at Union Station in Little Rock, Arkansas



Sperry hy-rail vehicle SRS 859 was testing switches as it proceeded westbound past Copetown {Ontario} on Wednesday March 28th, 2007.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Agreed,

but in my view, a contractor you pay to inspect your track is not much different than "self-inspection". The contractor is there to make a profit, and they won't make a profit long if they actually do a thorough job and cost their customer money.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. If they keep missing defects, they won't be doing inspections for long.

This particular defect can be tough to spot. When a crack starts inside the rail, a visual inspection will not find it in the early stages. Further, a small crack can remain inside a long time before it is detected, through the use of induction or ultrasonic techniques.

My guess is that this crack remained small enough to be both benign and undetectable until the end, when it grew quickly and became a threat.

I forgot to add the disclaimer that I own shares of CSX.

[Psephos]

7. But Iran should. n/t

[LanternWaste]

9. And Israel, too?

And Israel, too?

[Psephos]

10. You see where this kind of logic leads. n/t

[snooper2]

2. train bombs all the time, and people bitch about one fancy named pipeline out of 1000's

STUPID!

[zalinda]

4. People don't know about the pipelines

Who even knew that there were oil pipelines crisscrossing this country until Keystone XL? I sure didn't. I'm sure even most residents in which the pipelines reside, aren't aware of them. Pipelines don't and haven't made headlines, even when they leak, as we have found out, train 'bombs' do.

Hundreds to thousands of people getting sick and/or dying because of pipelines some how seems more acceptable?

Z

[snooper2]

5. People don't know there are pipelines all over the country? Really?

You aren't giving people much credit

but KEYSTONE! All we need is more funding for EPA and less for DoD so many more inspectors on ground.

[zalinda]

11. Yeah, it's sad.

I've only known about the Alaskan pipeline, and pretty much forgot about it, until Keystone.

Btw, O'Malley is my second choice.

Z