1992 New River Train Accident at Cotton Hill, W.Va.

The quality of the video shot is poor so seeing this is going to strain the eyes. As a member of the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society, I was working this train as a volunteer this weekend and was enjoying a smooth ride back west on the New River Sub. As the train rounded the curve to the crossovers at Cotton Hill, W.Va. a violent thunderstorm hit. As the train rounded the curve at the east end signal bridge, the hillside to the left of the train (to the right in the video) collapsed and caused several large trees to crash down on the first three dome cars in the consist. The force shattered the glass at the top of the dome cars. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. As the first dome car comes up to the Rt. 16 bridge, you can clearly see part of a tree still sitting on the car. The train made an emergency stop about a mile away to assess the damage and were given the clear to go west under a 25 mph restricted speed till Montgomery, W.Va. At Montgomery, Nickel Plate #765 took on water for the remainder of the trip. It was here they did a final inspection and cleared the train to go to Huntington. Maximum authorized speed for the remainder of the trip which was anywhere from 55-65 mph. It was later determined after a thorough inspection of the dome cars, that due to the damage, #765 should not have been allowed maximum authorized speed due to axle issues on two of the dome cars. It was this accident and others across the nation with excursion trains that CSX decided to up the liability insurance which caused the cancellation of steam service for this train. It was later taken over by Amtrak in 1995 with a consist of only 18 cars after this train used to run 32-34 cars. I am not responsible for the video. A train engineer that worked for CSX took the day off and chased this train and he was standing on the Rt. 16 bridge to capture #765 as he rounded the curve. He got more than he bargained for, but at the society (which he was a member of too), were thankful somebody captured this on video. I was able to obtain a copy of accident and thus have it in my possession nearly 17 years after it happened. Date: October 24, 1992