Safety board: Train derailed in Alabama lacked needed couplers

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — 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. A message seeking comment was sent Monday to the company.

No injuries were reported; three derailed tank cars were carrying hazardous material residue but all remained intact, the report said. The safety board said future investigation will focus on Norfolk Southern “communication, maintenance, and inspection practices” as well as locomotive and railcar positioning and train handling.

The safety board also said it was examining industry-wide standards and practices regarding railcar wheel and axle assemblies after a train derailment in Ohio earlier this month. Eight wheelsets were recovered from two of the 28 Norfolk Southern railcars that derailed March 4 near Springfield. Photographs taken after the derailment showed three wheels from the eight wheelsets “exhibited movement on their axles,” the board said.

Five days after that derailment, the Association of American Railroads issued an equipment inspection order advising railroads to remove from service — wheelsets mounted by National Steel Car between August and March.