July 30, 2019

R. J. Corman Railroad Services: Post-Derailment Cleanup in Tennessee

On March 7, 2018, 13 cars and three locomotives derailed in the mountains of Tennessee. The cars derailed on the side of a steep mountain, and the track could only be accessed from one angle. Several cars had also tumbled down into a ravine and needed to be retrieved, but there was no clear path to access the area where the cars were located. R. J. Corman Railroad Service’s experienced crews can find solutions to difficult circumstances, and they arrived on-site quickly to begin clearing the track.

R. J. Corman Railroad Services had over 60 team members and equipment from Nashville, Nicholasville, St. Louis, and Atlanta divisions at the scene of the derailment, quickly working to clear the line and get everything back to working order. Sidebooms, loaders, excavators, bulldozers, and crawler dumps, along with as many as 13 track dumps, fuel trucks to keep all the equipment running, and multiple ATVs for individuals to travel around the job site were all used during the cleanup. R. J. Corman crews cleared trees, graded, and built a 2-mile road down the side of the mountain so that the equipment could access the cars in the ravine. Along with dragging cars out, some of the freight cars that had tumbled down the cliff had been burned, and they hauled the wreckage out. After all the cars were cleared, R. J. Corman worked to restore the surrounding area to its previous condition.

In just over a month, on April 11th, the derailment was cleared, the cars in the ravine were successfully removed, and the track was restored to working order.