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Derailments
Derailments are an unfortunate and preventable aspect of railroading, however, they do occur
nonetheless. The purpose of this page is to remind railroad operators of the dangers inherent
in all railroad operations, so that future accidents such as the ones depicted below can be
prevented.
Extra 4052 East:
On September 14, 2001 at approximately 8:30pm,
eastbound general merchandise Extra 4052 East collided with the rear end of a unit coal train
just east of "Bohl Crossing". The unit coal train had stopped on approach to Clarendon Gap
due to motive power failure, and the engineer aboard #4052 failed to obtain necessary track
clearance to proceed east of the crossover:
Extensive damage is clearly evident in this view of the Extra 4052 East wreck
As can be seen in the below view, engine #4052, an SD70M on lease to the Garfield Central from the
New York, Susquehanna and Western (NYSW), was badly damaged during the wreck. The second engine in
the consist, #4054, escaped major damage. The caboose and four coal cars were scrapped on-site:
#4052 leans precariously into a ditch. Note the "cutoff" track in the foreground.
Extra 3501 West:
On November 8, 2002 at approximately 9:15pm,
westbound local Extra 3501 West collided with the rear end of a unit coal train
inside of "The Subway". The unit coal train had slowed due to a red signal at Bridgeport,
and a collision ensued:
Luckily no one inside the caboose was injured in this wreck
Extra 614 East:
In what is still widely considered to be one of the worst wrecks in the
Garfield Central's history, an heavy eastbound Guilford freight consisting of
general merchandise and loaded intermodal cars was rear-ended by an empty coal
train in the vicinity of Garfield Courthouse on November 4, 2001.
As has been the case with other derailments, Extra 614 East was holding at
Bohl Crossing for clearance into Clarendon Gap and the reversing loop there.
614 East's train was so long that most of its trailing intermodal equipment stretched
into the "Subway" portion of the layout. The engineer on the loaded coal train
was operating based solely on track occupancy lights from the panels, without
obtaining verbal and/or visual confirmation of track occupancy. For whatever
reason, the panel on this day showed no occupancy through Garfield Courthouse,
and so the coal train's engineer moved his train towards Bohl Crossing at normal speed,
when the collision occured.
Garfield Courthouse was the location of the infamous "Extra 614 East" wreck
As can be seen in the above view, the coal train exerted so much force on the rear of 614
East that a dozen or so cars from the middle of the struck train derailed and bunched up
accordian-style. Below is a closer view of the wrecked equipment:
Much of the wreck occured because the coal train did not stop
upon impact, but rather, kept moving forwards, thus worsening an already-bad situation
Residents of neighboring farms were forced to evacuate the area, due to spilled fuel oil
from the black tank car in the center of the wreck. An empty bulkhead flat's coupler punctured
the tank car's end panel, spilling fuel everywhere and closing the GC mainline for 14 hours:
Another view of the wreck at Garfield Courthouse
Garfield Courthouse was the location of yet another wreck several years later,
this time involving a UP train rear-ending and derailing a stopped Pennsy passenger train
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