Safety board: Alabama derailed train lacked needed couplers
Federal investigators say a Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Alabama earlier this month lacked required alignment control couplers and a company inspection didn't identify their absence
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Alabama earlier this month lacked required alignment control couplers for two of its locomotives and a company inspection did not identify their absence, federal investigators said Monday.
The notation comes in one of three preliminary reports issued Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board about Norfolk Southern train accidents this month as the board investigates the railroad’s safety practices after the fiery February derailment and toxic chemical burn in East Palestine, Ohio.
In a report released Monday about a March 9 derailment of two locomotives and 37 rail cars in Anniston, Alabama, the safety board said two of the train’s six locomotives were “waybill locomotives,” or towed cars not used for any tractive power. The cars weren’t equipped with alignment control couplers that “resist lateral coupler movement under compressive in-train forces.” A company rule bars towing waybill locomotives without such couplers, the report said.
The waybill locomotives were coupled together and picked up from Bluffton, Indiana, on Feb. 24 and a Norfolk Southern inspection before the first movement involving the coupled locomotives “did not identify the absence of alignment control couplers,” the safety board said.
