Uniontown freight train derailment blamed on bad crossties

A preliminary report by a local rail company points to defective or missing railroad crossties and fasteners as the reason why a train jumped the tracks in January just steps from some Uniontown homes, snarling traffic and knocking out power for hours.

Four locomotives pulling 38 freight cars hauling fracking sand for Marcellus shale drilling were traveling about 10 mph when the 16th car derailed at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 22 at Locust and East Penn streets, according to the report.

Seven cars left the tracks, but no one was hurt, including an engineer and a conductor who were the only occupants, according to Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, a division of Carload Express of Oakmont, Allegheny County. The report states the rail company is responsible for maintaining the tracks.

The derailment caused $200,000 in damage: $125,000 to the track and $75,000 to unspecified equipment, the report indicates.

The Federal Railroad Administration, an arm of the Department of Transportation, investigated the accident. It has not yet released a report listing an official cause.

But Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, in its initial report, identified missing or defective crossties as the primary cause, with missing or defective spikes and other rail fasteners as a contributing cause.

Although the report was available on the FRA website, the chief executive officer of the railroad's parent company said he was not aware it indicated crossties were missing.

Instead, Russell Peterson, chief executive officer of Carload Express, said Friday that he had no knowledge of any missing crossties. He said the derailment's cause has been narrowed to a timber defect at the wooden grade crossing.

“I can't imagine railroad ties were missing,” said Peterson. “The issue was in the grade crossing, but we're not exactly sure what happened.”

Peterson said the grade crossing was inspected a week earlier, with no defects noted. At the time of the derailment, he said, the timber at the crossing was found to be “rough,” and the area was soaked with groundwater.

“It was a peculiar situation,” Peterson said. “But it's all new track now, and hopefully, we'll never experience anything like that again.”

East Penn Street was closed for several days for the cleanup. At least 250 feet of damaged track had to be removed and replaced, according to the contractor who did the work, GW Peoples Contracting. Power was cut to some homes and businesses temporarily.

Carload Express had released a statement saying the freight train was traveling south from Scottdale to Smithfield when the cars left the tracks.

Its load of fracking sand was to be delivered to Hi-Crush Partners at its Smithfield facility, manager Curt Johnson said at the time.

Houston-based Hi-Crush supplies fracking sand to natural gas drillers, according to its website. Its specialty is Northern White sand, which is found mainly in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.

Liz Zemba is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-601-2166 or lzemba@tribweb.com.