Why Did It Crash?
Man Claiming To Be A NS Engineer Lists Black Box' Findings On Railroad Web Forum

This photograph shows a Conrail train with thee 'pusher cars' pushing its way toward the Keating Summit grade, a hill climb to 1,800 feet above sea level. Pusher cars are needed to get loaded trains to the top of the grade, where the begin a dangerous downhill decent toward Emporium. The crash that occurred here three weeks ago, took place on that incline, reportedly because the engineer did not prepare for the slope, despite having traversed it before.

And now the wait.

It's the 10 million dollar question in these parts.

What caused the train that spilled 42,000 gallons of deadly toxins into the Sinnemahoning Portage Creek to crash?

For Norfolk Southern, it could be way more than a 10 million dollar question. It was their train that derailed in the mountains of McKean County near Gardeau and just outside of Cameron County. Three tankers split open and dumped their contents off the side of the tracks. The sodium hydroxide found its way into tiny mountain tributary and then into the top section of Portage Creek.

Within 24 hours, everything in that stream was dead for at least seven miles; only the strongest of organisms survived for several miles after. The Fish & Boat Commission says all the fish in the first 10 miles are dead (see related story this page).

Investigation by Norfolk Southern itself, as well as the Federal Railroad Administration, is underway. An official determination by either could be months away.

But the area in which the derailment occurred, the circumstances under which it occurred and clues from the scene itself make a pretty strong circumstantial case for excessive speed as the culprit.

An internet forum for railroad enthusiasts contains a post by a person who claims to be a Norfolk Southern engineer and who claims to know the findings of the train's event record- "black box."

Here's what he had to say.

"We recently had a serious derailment on the Buffalo Line south of Keating Summit Pa. It seems to have been caused by the engineer's inattention to the severe grade, even though he had been over this territory many times.

Here are the findings off the event recorder: notch throttle 9 mph. So far, so good.

Still coming over the summit 7th notch, 18 mph.

First application of the dynamic brake 48 mph. Too late, it's now a runaway.

First application of train brakes 73 mph.

Train goes in emergency 76 mph.

Train behind the 15th car derails, engines and the 15 cars go 2 1/2 miles before finally coming to a stop."

That Norfolk Southern freight train crashed violently on a mountainside not far from Parker's Tomb in Gardeau. It was traveling toward Emporium on what is known as the Buffalo to Harrisburg line.

The stretch where the train first lost control begins an area of tracks that is as steep as any in Pennsylvania, the "Keating Summit Grade," as it is referred to by Pennsylvania railroad buffs.

The railroad grade is 2.2 percent in the section of track that runs down a two mile stretch from atop Keating Summet- one of the highest elevations in the area at 1,840 feet above sea level.

The incline is such that the Keating Summit grade is one of the last in the state where "pusher" cars are needed to boost loaded trains to the top of the mountain. On the Buffalo Line, those pusher cars are stationed in Olean, NY.

The 29 cars that crashed here on June 30 are believed to be only half the train that was making the trip south toward Harrisburg that day. The other half was reportedly in Port Allegany. The engines would return for it after making it to Emporium and leaving the first half sit here.

That's routine practice for the stretch of tracks between Emporium and Port Allegany.

An engineer who has traveled the Buffalo to Harrisburg line many times said "Keating summit was the only place on the CR (Conrail) system where 4, six-axle units were required as helpers. You can be damn sure his is the worst hill for mainline trains on the system."