A gondola car of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad loaded with 100 tons of coal derailed Wednesday behind the Canal Plaza office complex as it approached the Mirant Power Plant in Alexandria.
"The system is designed with an automatic derailer if it senses the train is not going to stop," said Debbie Knight, environmental analyst for Mirant. "It is a safety mechanism which did what it was supposed to do. There were no injuries or any spillage of coal."
However, about four sections of the cast iron fence that runs along the right-of-way were ripped out. The fence gate was hanging from the front of the engine and another portion was jammed between two other coal-laden cars. The derailed car, one of 12 loaded with fuel for the power plant, remained coupled to the engine.
"No other services were inconvenienced by this because the train is on our track," Knight said. "This was our delivery for the day. We were in the process of dumping the coal, which is done car by car, when the derailment occurred."
During this process trains are barely moving.
Normally, Mirant gets one load of coal per day, according to Knight. This allowed Norfolk and Southern a full 24 hours to place the car back on the track so that normal operations could resume.