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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 1, 1995                   TAG: 9502010060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

TRAIN HAD FAILED TO WAIT

A train headed west was supposed to be waiting for an eastbound train to move past it. But Bob Auman, a railroad spokesman based in Roanoke, said "both trains were in fact moving." The cause of the head-on collision still is under investigation, he said.

The eastbound train was going about 29 mph; the westbound train was going about 17 mph.

Auman said cleanup crews were making fast progress.

"We anticipate that the line will be back in service by 10 a.m. [today]," Auman said.

By midafternoon Tuesday, six trains that normally would travel along the Radford line had been rerouted to Bluefield, W.Va., or Asheville, N.C., Auman said.

Eleven cars, including five locomotives, derailed, with one landing nose-first in the New River at the west end of Bisset Park.

The train, cargo and the track suffered more than $2 million in damage, Auman said, with most of the damage incurred by the locomotives. The estimate does not include cleanup costs.

About 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the New River and another 2,600 gallons onto the railroad's right of way, Auman said.

The railroad is being assisted by Donohue Bros., a Barboursville, W.Va., company that brought in six big pieces of moving equipment. Cranes also were brought in from Roanoke and Bluefield to help remove the wreckage, Auman said.

One train had two workers aboard; the other had four. Two jumped overboard, and all six escaped with minor injuries, Auman said. NS is not releasing their names.

The derailment happened at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the New River trestle at the Radford-Pulaski County line.

Cleanup work continued Tuesday afternoon on the Pulaski County side, where railroad crews were righting cars that had been transporting automobiles.

"Environmentally, our side's in real good shape," said Stan Crigger, the county's emergency services coordinator.

Across the river in Radford, a Roanoke contractor hired by NS was cleaning up the remnants of the spilled diesel fuel. Some hydraulic fluid also leaked.

Radford Fire Chief Martin "Jigger" Roberts credited solid training and prompt action by fire crews with containing the spill.

"Our people pretty much knew what to do, and that saved us a lot of oil getting further down the river," he said Tuesday.

Within minutes of the emergency call, Roberts said, his department notified Dublin Fire Chief Robbie Cecil, who retrieved oil-stopping booms from the Department of Environmental Services' warehouse in Dublin.

The first boom was in the river within an hour after the wreck, Roberts said. A second boom was then stretched across the waterway. The booms contained "a good portion of it," but some oil - Roberts wasn't sure just how much - escaped down river, he said.