Staten Island Railway: Tottenville derailment

[WMAveteran]

The 12/27/2008 edition of THE NEW YORK TIMES reported the following: "At 6:27 a.m. (12/26/2008), as a four-car train entered the Tottenville station, it struck the iron bumper that sits on the rails.  The lead car derailed in the accident, which took place a few dozen yards from the Arthur Kill, the narrow channel that separates Staten Island and New Jersey.  No passengers were on board, and the two crew members on the train were not injured."  "Between Tottenville and Pleasant Plains, four stations away, service was reduced to a single train running back and forth until the derailed train could be removed."  "The spectacle ended around 6:30 p.m., 12 hours after it began, when transit workers used a blue locomotive to tug the derailed car back onto the track.  They were rushing to beat the 7:15 p.m. high tide, when the water would have been lapping at the car."

"The Staten Island Railway is one of the oldest elements of the nation's busiest mass transit systems and predates the New York City subway by 44 years.  It began running on April 23, 1860, when the island was a sparsely inhabited collection of hamlets."  As many of you railfans know, the Staten Island Railway was originally owned by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). 

[C40LF_2464]

Gotta hate when that happens glad there wasnt a big mess

[WayneNYC]

Yeah - Nothing much happens at SI Railway or as we NY'ers used say... SIRT.  For those who don't know SIR uses 64 R44 subway cars.  They used to have 52 cars, but when they were overhauled, 12 NYCTA units (388-399) were transferred to Staten Island.