neo train model

"Three years ago the unthinkable happened... "

It was shortly before midnight, Monday, August 20, 2012. Two 19 year old girls sat on the railroad bridge, feet dangling over Main Street, their backs to the railroad tracks several feet away. They tweeted, "Looking down on old EC." The high school friends would soon be returning to their respective colleges and they were doing what kids in Ellicott City have allegedly done for years, hanging out on the historic trestle on a warm summer night. Then the unthinkable happened.

A fully loaded eastbound coal train rounded the bend and descended into town. The first ten cars rumbled past the girls before something went tragically wrong. A string of hoppers derailed, tipping over and burying the pair instantly.

The CSX eastbound train had originated in Grafton, WV and was comprised of 80 fully loaded hoppers pulled by two locomotives. Total weight was estimated at 9,000 tons.

The first 21 cars of the train derailed in the heart of downtown at the historic bridge over Main Street. The girls were in a restricted area accessible by climbing a low fence.

All reports confirm that the train was traveling at the 25 MPH speed limit entering town.

The cost in property damage and clean-up was estimated at $1.9 million, but the emotional loss for the close-knit community can never be determined.  (Photo by John Teichmoeller)

It was initially speculated that a retaining wall had slowly been giving way allowing the track above to go out of gauge, but a year-long investigation by the NTSB found that a rail fractured several hundred feet from the trestle caused by the "gradual deterioration of the rail-head surface" ... otherwise known as metal fatigue.             (Photo by John Teichmoeller)