What to Know
- A freight train derailment in southeast Pennsylvania spurred precautionary evacuations, but officials say no injuries were reported and there's no known hazard to the public.
- The 40-car CSX train, which was operating on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, derailed around 4:50 a.m. Monday in Whitemarsh Township. Fifteen cars had derailed.
- Whitemarsh police said that after working through the night Monday into Tuesday, that crews hoped to reopen the rail line by some time on Wednesday.
A day after a freight train derailed in Montgomery County -- sending more than one dozen cars off the tracks, causing road closures in the area and evacuations -- progress is being made to get trains moving again.
The tracks that had appeared to be bent on Monday morning in a wooded area near Stenton Avenue and Joshua Road in Whitemarsh Township by Tuesday appeared to be removed and temporary track could be seen in its place.
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Crews worked through the night to remove the damaged track as well as cars not impacted by the derailment, Whitemarsh Township Police Chief Christopher Ward. They are also placing down that new temporary track,
"According to the information we've received the cleanup is going very well," Ward told NBC10's Lauren Mayk Tuesday afternoon.
The hope is to reopen the railway at some point Wednesday, Ward said, while noting crews have worked 24 hours a day.
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One of the last barriers to doing so would be to offload a potentially hazardous chemical from one of the crashed tanker cars that remained off to the side of the track work being done, Ward said, while noting the plan was to leave that for last.
Representatives from the NTSB, EPA, the Pennsylvania departments of environmental protection and transportation and other agencies were on the scene as well for "oversight."
Ward said crews are being methodic with the final cleanup to "make sure we don't turn a good situation into a bad situation."
The speed at which crews from Norfolk Southern, which operates the tracks, worked was all about getting the vital freight line going again.
"There's a lot of commerce that runs through this line so they don't want to have it down," Ward said.
Norfolk Southern stated Monday that the clean-up process could take up to two days. Ward's timetable revealed Tuesday seems within that timetable.
What was on the derailed train?
Train operator CSX said that 16 train cars went off the tracks, which appeared to be bent. Firefighters later said it was actually 15 train cars that derailed. Among the derailed cars were several containers -- some which appeared to have toppled onto the ground -- and several tankers that appeared to smash against each other. One tanker car was on its side.
A white substance appeared to be leaking from at least one tanker. Whitemarsh police said in a Facebook post that the leaking substance was "silicone pellets which pose no risk to the community."
Two of the tanker cars were empty, Barren Hill Volunteer Fire Company Chief Chris Schwartz said Monday. Five cars, however, contained the liquid fertilizer urea and one car containing tetrachloroethylene, which is used as a dry cleaning agent and metal degreasing solvent, according to the CDC.
Hazmat crews were called to the scene to make sure none of the chemicals spilled.
"While preliminary reports indicate that one car transporting hazardous material was involved in the incident, there is no indication of any leaks or spills of hazardous materials and there are no injuries to the crew of the train," CSX said in a statement.
The materials in the crashed train cars would need to be carefully handled while righting the cars and unloading, officials said.
Twelve nearby homes were evacuated shortly after the derailment was reported "out of an abundance of caution,” Whitemarsh Township Police Chief Christopher Ward said. Those residents were allowed to return to their homes around 9:30 a.m.
No one was hurt in the derailment and police said there was "no known hazard to the public."
What caused the train to go off the rails?
Norfolk Southern told NBC10 that tracks where the derailment took place are owned by them. However, the train was being operated by CSX.
Norfolk Southern and CSX teams worked to investigate what happened and clean up the mess.
"The cause of the incident is under investigation," CSX initially said.
However, spokesperson Sheriee Bowman later said that the derailment appeared to be "weather related."
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) would work with the railroad to monitoring cleanup at the site and work to get the freight line moving again.
Norfolk Southern — and the entire rail industry — has been under intense scrutiny since one of its trains derailed and caught fire in February in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border, creating towering black smoke, forcing evacuations and raising environmental worries.
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