Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000 CSX Transportation train derails, tears up area of track

By Mark LaFlamme Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS - Engineers were assessing the damage Friday night after a train slipped off the railroad tracks near Center Avenue and Warwick Boulevard.

The CSX Transportation train was hauling coal to the Newport News Shipbuilding yard about 2:30 p.m. when it derailed.

"We're all just standing here and suddenly the train stopped," said Brad Harris, one of three men working at Dea's Builders and Remodeling, near the scene of the derailment. "There were no brakes, no nothing. It was quick and sudden."

Eight cars on the train slipped off the rails, tearing up about a 40-foot section of tracks. The train stopped with those eight boxcars askew but none of them overturned.

The train conductor said he had no idea what caused the derailment.

"He was switching off from the Amtrak side," said Sean Coleman, another witness. "The weight must have shifted."

The accident occurred roughly five minutes after an Amtrak train passed through the area, said Brad Harris, who was also working at Dea's when the train derailed.

One railroad official said the damage to the tracks would be repaired by Saturday night. A crew of CSX workers was called up from Richmond to help with the repairs.

The derailment was not expected to affect Amtrak traffic. An Amtrak terminal is located just a short distance away from where the coal train derailed.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/stories/85457sy0.htm

-- Doris (groomlk@bellsouth.net), September 30, 2000

Answers

This sure sounds like a y2k-type mishap if ever one did.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 30, 2000.