Fwd Updates: NS derailment at Gang Mills NY; Thurs 28 Dec
Paul S. Highland
UPDATE: Tanker derailment closes Rt. 15
Southbound lane of highway reopens
December 28, 2006
GANG MILLS NY -- Two tanker cars containing butane derailed at about 9:15 a.m.
at the Norfolk Southern railroad yard in Gang Mills.
The tanker cars tipped over and officials don't yet know the cause. The butane
is in a liquid form and would not become a gas until it hits the atmosphere.
Butane is used for various manufacturing processes and is commonly found in
lighters. The butane in the tanker cars is currently not odorized.
Firefighters from Gang Mills set up a command post to handle the incident and
called for help from Painted Post and Coopers Plains fire departments.
Police have closed Route 15 in both directions, and traffic was being diverted
to Route 417. The southbound lane was opened in late afternoon, but the
northbound lane remained closed as of early evening.
No one is being allowed within a 300-foot radius of the tanker cars and six to
eight railyard employees have been evacuated.
No injuries have been reported.
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http://www.star-gazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061229/NEWS01/612290313/1001/ARCHIVES
Butane scare closes Rt. 15 for hours
Rail cars carrying liquid fuel derailed at Gang Mills rail yard
By Ray Finger <mailto:rfi...@stargazette.com>
December 29, 2006
[Photo: RAY FINGER/Star-Gazette
The scene on U.S. Route 15 on Thursday morning before the highway was closed to
traffic following the derailment of two tanker cars containing butane.]
[Photo: RAY FINGER/Star-Gazette
Members of a hazmat team from the Corning Fire Department check rail tankers
Thursday for leaking butane after a derailment.]
GANG MILLS NY -- The derailment of two tanker cars containing butane Thursday
morning closed U.S. Route 15 in both directions for several hours, diverting
traffic to state Route 417.
The southbound lane of the highway opened in late afternoon, but the northbound
lane remained closed into the evening.
The Steuben County 911 Center was notified about 8:45 a.m. Thursday of the
overturned tankers at the Norfolk Southern railroad yard next to Route 15.
Officials did not immediately know why the rail cars tipped over.
After Route 15 was closed about 11 a.m., a hazardous materials team from the
Corning Fire Department checked the scene and found no leaks in the area.
However, the two tanker cars and another car that followed them were very
unstable because the gravel bed that supports the track had been damaged, Gang
Mills-Forest View Fire Chief Dan Dillon said. Efforts were under way Thursday
afternoon to shore up the gravel, he said.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said the tanker cars were being moved
in the rail yard and were traveling slowly when they derailed. "The cause is
under investigation," he said. He did not know the tankers' ultimate
destination, he said.
A contractor for Norfolk Southern was called in Thursday afternoon to set the
rail cars upright, Husband said. It should be possible to upright the cars
without first having to unload the butane, he said. He did not estimate how
long the process might take.
"It will take as long as it takes," Husband said. "That's not anything that we
rush into, and so we'll do everything safely and with the appropriate level of
caution, given the fact that it's a flammable commodity."
About six to eight employees had been evacuated from the rail yard, Dillon
said. No one was injured, he said. Two other rail cars were involved, but one
was empty, and the other did not contain hazardous materials, he said. Only
emergency workers were allowed within a 300-foot radius of the tanker cars, he
said.
The close proximity of the highway to the rail yard was a concern, Dillon said.
Even though there were no leaks, Route 15 was kept closed as a precaution
because vibration from passing vehicles could make the incident worse than it
already was, he said.
"Right now, there's no danger to the public at all whatsoever, and our goal is
to keep it that way," he said Thursday afternoon.
Butane is used for various manufacturing processes and is commonly found in
lighters. The butane in the tanker cars was in a liquid form and would not
become a gas unless it contacts the atmosphere, Dillon said. The butane had not
yet been odorized, he said.
Firefighters from Gang Mills had set up a command post to handle the incident
at the site of a former landscaping business on South Hamilton Street across
the highway from the accident scene.
Elmira Mayor John Tonello said this derailment shows why he and others are
concerned that Norfolk Southern recently raised the train speed limit in the
city from 30 mph to 50 mph.
"It doesn't appear that the Gang Mills incident was related to speed, but
anytime there's an accident, people are obviously concerned," Tonello said. "It
just makes people aware that accidents do happen. It also makes people aware
that there's some really dangerous stuff traveling on the tracks."
This derailment was the second incident at the rail yard in less than two
weeks, according to Dillon. One rail car containing trash tipped over in the
yard about a week and half ago, he said.
Husband said he was not aware of any incident 10 days ago.
Gang Mills firefighters were assisted by the Corning, North Corning, Coopers
Plains-Long Acres, Painted Post and Addison fire departments, New York State
Police, the state Department of Transportation, Steuben County Sheriff's
Department, Rural Metro Ambulance Service and the Norfolk Southern railroad.
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http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/NEWS01/612300311
Tanker cars righted in Gang Mills
Rt. 15 reopens; concerns linger about train safety issues
By Brooke J. Sherman <mailto:bshe...@stargazette.com>
December 30, 2006
Investigators spent Friday looking into the cause of a two-car train derailment
Thursday in Gang Mills, while discussion continued about train speeds in Elmira.
Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, said the two tanker cars that were
carrying butane were returned to the Gang Mills track early Friday morning.
At 3 a.m. Friday, U.S. Route 15, which runs beside the railroad tracks,
reopened to traffic after being shut down since 11 a.m. Thursday, according to
state police in Painted Post. Traffic had been rerouted to state Route 417.
Husband said the two butane tankers derailed and two covered hopper cars began
to leave the tracks. The cars were not traveling very fast at the time of the
derailment, he said, and no leaks occurred.
No one was injured.
The tracks in the Norfolk Southern rail yard are checked at least once a month,
Husband said, while regular tracks are checked at least twice a week.
After the derailment, conversation turned to concerns about the speed of the
trains that travel through Elmira. The speed was recently increased from 30 mph
to 50 mph.
Husband said he couldn't understand the parallel being drawn between increased
train speed in Elmira and a two-car derailment in the rail yard at Gang Mills.
"The derailment took place at a very low speed, probably less than 5 miles per
hour. How somebody could try to draw a similarity to an increase in train
speed, I don't understand," he said.
Husband could not speculate as to how Elmira could be affected by a train
derailment such as what happened in Gang Mills. A butane leak could force a
quarter-mile evacuation from the area impacted by the leak, he said.
Elmira Mayor John Tonello said any time there is a train derailment or
accident, city residents by nature think of train safety through the city.
"It's hard to imagine anyone being left in downtown if an evacuation was
necessary," Tonello said as he discussed his concerns with increased train
speed across the viaducts that slice through the city's downtown.
"I'm not saying what happened in Gang Mills was speed-related," Tonello said.
"It just draws attention to something we have no control over."