National Steel Car: Steel coil car wheelsets didn’t play role in Norfolk Southern derailment

AAR cancels advisory recommending that 675 cars be sidelined for wheelset replacements

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HAMILTON, Ontario – It turns out that the railroad industry’s emergency advisory sidelining 675 new steel coil cars with suspect wheelsets was a false alarm.

In the wake of a March 4 Norfolk Southern derailment in Springfield, Ohio, the Association of American Railroads issued an equipment advisory recommending that the cars, built by National Steel Car, be removed from service until their wheelsets could be replaced. NS had said that loose wheels on the cars presented an increased risk of an out of gauge derailment.

The equipment advisory was rescinded last week after National Steel Car data showed that all 2,700 wheelsets were installed properly, the carmaker said in a Friday news release.

National Steel Car said it didn’t agree with the AAR’s March 9 equipment instruction advisory, but began collecting relevant data as part of a safety review. The data was presented to the AAR, National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Railroad Administration.

“The overwhelming data, approximately 7,000 records for all 2,700 wheelsets, prove that the AAR … mounting requirements were met, and that the report of loose wheels was misleading,” National Steel Car CEO Gregory J. Aziz said in a statement. “Through the use of laser scan data, the three wheels which moved on their axles were proven to be a direct result of an enormous impact being applied to the wheelsets during the Springfield, Ohio, derailment.”

The 210-car, 17,966-ton merchandise train that derailed in Springfield had the bulk of its tonnage at the front and rear of the train, with empty cars sandwiched in between, the FRA said in a train makeup safety advisory issued earlier this month. The train had three locomotives on the head end and two distributed power units placed midtrain.

“The train was traveling on an ascending 0.6% grade with a heavier part on a 0.7% downhill grade,” the FRA said. “The weight was mostly concentrated at the head and rear ends of the train. During the accident, dynamic braking was applied only to the headend locomotive consist, while the DPUs were idle, making it function like a conventional train. The derailment happened at the sag between ascending and descending grades, with short, empty rail cars designed to ship coiled steel being the first to derail. Buff forces peaked as the downhill portion of the train ran-in, causing the derailment of cars 70-72 and the subsequent pile-up.”

A motorist’s dash camera caught what appeared to be the beginning of the 28-car derailment at a grade crossing.

After reviewing the evidence from National Steel Car, the NTSB, and FRA, the AAR’s Wheels, Axles, Bearings and Lubrication Committee voted in an April 10 emergency meeting to cancel the equipment advisory covering the National Steel Cars.

“We are very pleased indeed that the cancellation of AAR EI-0033 completely exonerates National, in all respects, regarding this derailment,” Aziz said, referring to the AAR equipment instruction advisory.