1986 Dismal Swamp Accident Footage

[NW Mailing List]

This film was particularly interesting to me because I had a role in the cause-finding investigation of this accident.  As background information, prior to the June 1982 merger of the N&W and Southern the former had a three-man derailment cause-finding investigation team (some call it a "go-team") comprised of a representation from each of Transportation, Engineering and Mechanical departments, whereas the Southern used Research and Test personnel for derailment cause finding.  This arrangement continued for some years after the merger, i.e, derailments on the former N&W were still investigated by the team of three departments reps, and derailments on the former Southern were still investigated by Research and Test personnel.  Coincident with the merger I became the Mechanical Department representative on the cause-finding team for derailments on the N&W.

Shortly after the subject derailment occurred I received a telephone call from Mr. Hobart Scott, Vice President - Mechanical in Norfolk to pick up Bruce Smith, Foreman of the Roanoke Shops Passenger Car Shop and head to the derailment site ASAP.  By the time we arrived at the site, all of the passengers had been evacuated, but the cars and track had not been disturbed.  Mr. Scott saw me and called me to him where he showed me a track condition that he alleged was a contributing factor to causing the derailment.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a number of investigators to the site, and after days of investigation by a number of their specialists, the NTSB took 16 months to report its findings.  Although the NTSB listed other contributing factors, their report basically confirmed what Mr. Scott had told me 16 months earlier (with no taxpayer dollars spent by him either).

When it was learned that the NTSB was sending a team to investigate the derailment, I was told that it would no longer be a Norfolk Southern investigation and that I should work with the NTSB's mechanical specialist, who told me that he had been previously employed by the Burlington Northern.  The two of us inspected the cars as well as the 611 steam locomotive for any signs of a missing part that might have fallen to the track and caused the derailment.  Of course, we found none.  I did find one thing on the 611 that required correcting.  While we were in an inspection pit at Shaffers Crossing checking the underside of the 611 and its tender, I noticed an Armco brand wrought steel wheel set under the 611's tender.  Armco wheels had been prohibited under interchange freight cars for many years prior to our inspection because of a high failure rate, so it was arranged to replace that suspect wheelset with another brand.

I later testified at the NTSB hearing in Norfolk, mainly to the effect that the cars equipped with tightlock couplers had remained coupled and essentially in line, whereas it was the cars with E-head couplers that had jackknifed and, in one case, turned over.

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Friday, January 31, 2014 12:13 PM
  Subject: 1986 Dismal Swamp Accident Footage


  Not trying to bring up a grim topic, however, I have never seen footage on this accident until now;




  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7oFsP6ODmw





  Jeff Lisowski
  -- 
  "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  ________________________________________
  NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
  To change your subscription go to
  http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
  Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
  http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  No virus found in this message.
  Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
  Version: 2014.0.4259 / Virus Database: 3684/7048 - Release Date: 01/31/14
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20140201/0d6de35d/attachment.htm>