From Channel 5 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, this bit of news: http://5newsonline.com/2014/10/10/conductor-engineer-hospitalized-after-train-derails-in-chester/ The motive power consisted of the three SD70MACe recently purchased by A&M. Judging by one picture I've seen, at least one was lying on its side. It had been raining heavily in this part of the country, with flash flooding in the Four State area.
Bad news. I hope the guys in the head-end unit will quickly recover. However it's interresting to see more and more heavy and still recent motive power beeing incorporated in shortline rosters. BTW wasn't A&M historically equipped until recently with ALCO C420s and 425s ? Dom
Looks like that site might have also seen some previous troubles. Scary incident for the crew. Hope they'll be well soon.
IIRC, A&M was the last regional with a 100% ALCO roster prior to their purchase of EMD heavyweights just a few years ago. Apparently ALCO did not put in a bid for some reason....
The crew was discharged from the hospital, although I'm pretty sure they're sore from the bouncing around they did in the cab. As I mentioned earlier, this area had an awful lot of rain over the previous 24 hours, with flash-flooding widespread. Should be interesting to find if any other railroads suffered washouts or high water problems.
