After clearing the roads, Shambaugh Towing trucks can be seen attaching to the locomotive. The locomotive can be seen multiple feet to the right of the tracks.

A train car can be seen blocking Franklin street.

Dave Shambaugh, owner of Shambaugh Towing, attaches cables from his wreckers to the train cars to pull them clear of the road.

Pictured are Shambuagh Towing’s trucks pulling the train cars clear of Franklin Street next to Titusville Iron Works.

After clearing the roads, Shambaugh Towing trucks can be seen attaching to the locomotive. The locomotive can be seen multiple feet to the right of the tracks.

Titusville motorists are no strangers when it comes to waiting for trains to pass. On Wednesday afternoon, motorists had an extended wait, as the train they thought was just passing through didn’t clear the streets, as it was derailed.

Fortunately for all involved, there were no injuries. The train and its cars caused S. Franklin Street and S. Martin Street to be closed for a couple of hours before Shambaugh Towing was able to tow the train cars out of the road, and open up the roads for traffic.

According to Titusville Fire Chief Joe Lamey, the Titusville Fire Department received a call at 1:15 p.m. that a train derailed in town and was blocking traffic on Franklin and Martin Streets.

Lamey and his department responded to the scene to close off portions of the streets to stop motorists from getting to the blockage.

According to Titusville Police Chief Dustin LeGoullon, residents were quick to follow instructions to stay clear of the two roads, and the traffic problems quickly dissipated.

A train car can be seen blocking Franklin street.

The Herald spoke with CEO and President of OC&T Lines Robert Dingman, who shed some light on the situation, and what lead to the derailment. OC&T Lines is a company that operates in Pennsylvania, but has a headquarters located in Gowanda, NY.

OC&T Lines shares the same tracks as the tourist railroad Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad (OC&T), but is a separate entity.

Dingman told The Herald that while Engine 85 and a string of cars were traveling across town along the Fieldmore tracks, delivering wax and other materials to area businesses, it derailed.

According to a description of events given to him by Conductor Tom Keyes, after crossing Franklin street, axels three and four of the locomotive lifted off the rails, causing the train to rise off the tracks before setting down.

Dingman explained that a problem arose when the train crossed Franklin street, where the train’s flange, the projecting edge or rim on the circumference of a steel wheel that is designed to keep the wheel on a rail, encountered a flangeway full of ice., A flangeway is located where the train wheel’s flange fall into place.

Once the flange encountered the iced-over flangeway, the ice caused the flange to miss the flangeway, and lifted the train wheels off of the track. Dingman said this was caused by piles of snow at the crossing.

“At the edge of the crossing, the city plows deposited ridges of snow at the intersection,” said Dingman.

He explained that when there are large piles of snow, often some of the snow will melt and the water will sink to the bottom, where it freezes and becomes ice.

“That water freezes in the track structure, and that ice is very capable of picking up the wheels of our 115-ton locomotive,” Dingman said.

Once Dingman heard that there were no injuries, his primary concern, he said, was to do everything they could to get the roads back open.

“Our game plan became how can we clear this roadway as quickly as possible,” said Dingman.

Dingman said he called two company employees who made their way into Titusville to provide expertise in helping clear the blocked roads and railways. However, initially Dingman was not able to get a hold of the employees, and a Titusville business had to step up and help.

Dave Shambaugh, owner of Shambaugh Towing, attaches cables from his wreckers to the train cars to pull them clear of the road.

According to Dave Shambaugh, owner of Shambaugh Towing, he had been in town, heard about the train derailment, and went to see if there was anything he could do.

When Shambaugh arrived at the derailment site, he saw OC&T Rail Road Lines workers shoveling snow off of the tracks, trying to find a solution.

“They were at a loss about what to do,” said Shambaugh.

After doing some quick math on the weight of the freight, Shambaugh realized that his fleet of trucks could probably do the job.

“I knew I had enough equipment to do it. I just needed the okay,” he said.

After getting approval from OC&T Rail Road Lines, Shambaugh got two of his 25-ton wreckers to the section of Franklin Street that was blocked, and started attaching chains.

Shambaugh positioned his two wreckers on either side of the train cars, and started to pull.

Shambaugh first pulled three cars west towards the Titusville Iron Works. The train cars, according to Shambaugh, weigh 186,000 pounds each.

Shambaugh towed three cars to the point where Franklin Street was cleared, and then went to work on Martin Street.

After towing six cars away from the point where Martin Street intersected with the tracks, the road was clear.

Franklin Street opened up just after 4 p.m., and Martin Street was clear a bit later.

Pictured are Shambuagh Towing’s trucks pulling the train cars clear of Franklin Street next to Titusville Iron Works.

While this was the first time in decades that a train had been derailed in the city limits, Dingman explained that his company is no stranger to these types of incidents.

With the amount of snow and ice that the region has received this past month, Dingman said that something like this was almost inevitable.

“Every time we have a bad winter something like this happens,” he said.

This has led his team to have experience with these minor derailments, but mild winters in the past couple of years may have left them rusty.

Dingman did want to apologize to area residents, and said he knows the impact that his train had on area drivers.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience to the traveling public while our train blocked roads,” said Dingman.

Going forward, Dingman said his workers will try and make sure to get rid of ice in the flangeways, as it is the best way to avoid these minor derailments.

Dvorkin can be reached by email at Gdvorkin@titusvilleherald.com.

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Another black eye for the OC& T railroad.

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