CSX FREIGHT, CIRCUS TRAINS DERAIL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993                   TAG: 9303030085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
CSX FREIGHT, CIRCUS TRAINS DERAIL
A 12-car freight train derailed Tuesday after striking a rock slide on Afton Mountain, while several cars of a circus train derailed in a separate wreck in Petersburg.
Officials said the derailments were not related, although both occurred at 8:30 a.m. about 80 miles apart.
In the Afton Mountain accident, a huge rock slide pushed the tracks about four feet off line, said Albemarle County police Sgt. Duane Karr.
Lynn Johnson, a spokesman for CSX Corp., which owns the track and the train, said there were no injuries. The train, with a three-member crew, was traveling 20 mph when it struck the rock slide. Johnson said the lead locomotive jumped the track and the fuel tanks of three trailing locomotives were ruptured.
Johnson said a small amount of diesel fuel leaked from the locomotives into a creek, and an environmental contractor was on the scene.
In the second accident, the circus made an unexpected stop in Petersburg when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus train derailed while switching tracks.
Norfolk Southern Corp. crews spent three hours getting the train back on track. The circus train was bound for performances in Hampton via Richmond.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB