What's Coming Down The Tracks?

January 6, 2005:

A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas. On January 6, 2005, a Norfolk Southern Railway freight train struck a parked train on the spur leading to Avondale's Stevens Steam Plant. One of two train cars that were carrying liquid chlorine ruptured, releasing a poisonous chlorine cloud. Nine people were killed, more than 250 injured, and more than five thousand were displaced from their homes for more than a week. On May 20, 2006 the town dedicated a memorial to those who perished. The memorial is located in a small park at the intersection of Canal St and Aiken Rd.
Until 1996, Graniteville was the home office and central location of a collection of textile plants in South Carolina and Georgia known as The Graniteville Company. In 1996, the company was bought out by Avondale Mills, a company which was one of the largest denim manufacturers in the United States. Avondale closed or sold off all of its plants in the area in 2006, unable to recover financially from the train accident in 2005. Graniteville is also home to a Bridgestone/Firestone Tire and Rubber Company plant.

Have you ever read the contents on the side of rail tank cars?  It can be pretty spooky, especially when one lives next to the tracks.  I remember a similar accident in Superior, Wisconsin, where folks were evacuated in a fog of toxic gas from I believe a derailment.  Oh well, I figure the odds are against a particularly bad accident by my place.  The former tenant mentioned that a derailment occurred once and involved a bunch of Ford tractors in transport, and he ended up with a hydraulic cylinder that was lost when they cleaned up the wreckage.  Jackpot!