Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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The trackside building that Newton Falls locals refer to as “The Tower,” the former Baltimore & Ohio Depot — also known as the Franklin Street Station, will be demolished today. It was heavily damaged by a train derailment Monday. The building is believed to date to 1904.
Submitted photo
Photo
Librarians at the Newton Falls Public Library found a postcard made from a 1930s painting of the station, but no published history of the building.
Gallery
NEWTON FALLS — A CSX train carrying ammonia and chlorine was heading west when it derailed from the railroad tracks near North Center Street in Newton Falls at about 6:45 a.m. today. Residents living within a 500-foot radius of the derailment - including workers at the Cadle Co. – were evacuated and taken to the Newton Falls Community Center. No injuries have been reported.
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
It took workers only 24 hours to remove an early Monday 14-car train derailment in the center of Newton Falls and restore regular train traffic.
By Tuesday morning, workers from CSX and RJ Corman Derailment Services — working Monday and throughout the night — had taken the derailed cars to a yard nearby and replaced ruined tracks and railroad ties.
The trains were running again first thing Tuesday, just like normal.
One thing that won’t return as normal, however, is a building that many locals refer to as “The Tower.” It’s the former B&O Depot, also known as the Franklin Street Station, a former elevated station between Canal and Center streets. It stands above Franklin Street.
A CSX spokesman says the station, which CSX owns, has not been used for two years.
The building, also called the “Dispatch Tower,” has a section on the top that CSX used to use for keeping track of train traffic in the area, Fire Chief Richard Bauman said.
It was hit by two of the train cars during the derailment. The cars formed a “V” and plowed into the front center part of the station, causing substantial damage.
Bauman said the impact of the derailment also caused a portion of the building to shift off its foundation.
It’s a little hard to see the front of the building because of the elevation and because it faces the backyards of homes and businesses along North Street.
Bauman and other city officials said the building, believed to date to 1904, will be destroyed about 8:30 a.m. today as a result of the damage.
Kurt Kollar, a member of the emergency response unit for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said the small amount of asbestos in the building could be removed fairly quickly in advance of Wednesday’s demolition.
A 1922 map from Sanborn Fire Insurance shows the Franklin Street building, then known as the “B&O Station,” contained a waiting room and baggage room.
Librarians at the Newton Falls Public Library found a postcard made from a painting of the station from the 1930s but no published history of the building.
Newton Falls Police Chief John Kuivila, Bauman and a CSX official said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference they still don’t know what caused the derailment, which prompted unfounded fears of a chemical spill.
The hundreds of people who were evacuated from homes near the downtown train tracks after the 6:50 a.m. accident were allowed back in their homes just after 5 p.m. Monday.
Meanwhile, Bauman and Kuivila said the damage that was done to the Canal Street and Center Street trestles was not significant enough to stop CSX from restarting train traffic, but they don’t know how much damage was done.
The Center Street bridge remained closed to car traffic Tuesday afternoon because of damage that was done to the roadway as a result of falling train cars, Bauman said.
CSX employee Jack Elmore said he had met with residents and business owners Tuesday who had been evacuated by the derailment and had written checks to them to compensate them for food, lodging, lost wages and other losses they had experienced because of the accident.
Don Waldron, director of the Trumbull County HazMat Bureau, said CSX also was willing to reimburse the fire departments and other emergency personnel who came to the scene early Monday when it appeared possible that the derailment might cause a chemical spill.