Train wreck results in new guide

By TOM KANE

SHOHOLA, PA - “We’ve been waiting five years for this guide. It took a near tragic train wreck to get it,” said Shohola Fire Chief Don Wall. The guide was provided by the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Wall presented an advanced copy of a “Guide for the Upper Delaware River Valley,” a formula for avoiding the mistakes that happened on October 13, 2005 when nine cars on a New York Susquehanna and Western (NYS&W) train jumped off the tracks and caused some difficult problems for the fire companies and emergency crews. He appeared before the Shohola Township Supervisors on December 14.

One emergency was the possible need to evacuate residents. It wasn’t clear what was in the boxcars because the “consist,” the list of the cars’ contents, was not available to the fire chief at the scene.

What compounded the problem was the lack of clear communication lines to railroad dispatchers and railroad management.

“These matters are all taken up in the new guide,” Wall said. “It contains all the essential phone numbers of dispatchers so they can be talked to directly. It contains frequencies that are followed in radio communication. Everyone will be able to be on the same radio location, not like in October of 2005.”

At the occasion of the wreck, the two trainmen walked away from the engine, which was at a distance from the wrecked cars, leaving the list of contents behind in the engine. It took 30 or more minutes to get a clear idea of the boxcars’ contents.

“Now, one member of the train crew will stay at the engine with the consist, and if the other member walks away from the engine, he must carry a copy of the consist with him,” Wall said.

After the wreck, Wall came under a lot of heat for actions that occurred when he was the events manager in control of all the emergency crews.

A subsequent investigation by the FRA, released in November, exonerated him from any blame and squarely put it on the NYS&W management.

“We are going to examine the contents of the new guide and get the reaction of local fire chiefs from both sides of the river,” Wall said.

Once the guide is complete, it will be distributed to all fire chiefs and emergency management personnel in the towns that the railroad passes through, he said.