Locomotive DERAILS – Ends Up in the Woods

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:02]The eerie sound of an electronic bell coming from a wrecked locomotive. This was the scene in Alto, Georgia after a Norfol Southern train collided with a truck on May 21st, 2026.

[00:00:14]According to the Hall County Sheriff's Office, this all happened just after 11:30 in the morning at a crossing on Yona Road. Alto, Georgia is around 70 mi northeast of Atlanta, and this location is right at the border of Hall and Banks County. Fortunately, the sheriff's office said there were no injuries reported. As you can see, that truck was pulling a heavy load, a lowboy trailer with an excavator on it. Now, I'm not sure how fast the train was going, but track speed here is 55 mph. As you can see, three locomotives are on the ground. The leading locomotive ended up here in the woods. It actually took out several trees before coming to rest.

[00:00:53]Number 4808 is a rebuilt General Electric-9, now designated as an AC44C6M.

[00:01:00]The second unit is an electromotive division SD70 ACE. For added crew comfort, the cabs on these are isolated from the frame, and it appears the cab on this locomotive has separated. Behind NS134 is this BNSF unit, a GE ES-44 DC.

[00:01:17]These all came to rest around 300 yd from the crossing where the impact happened. At least three well cars, the rolling sock that carries shipping containers were also derailed. As you can see, the forces were so great the mainline actually shifted several feet.

[00:01:32]Now, I'm not aware of any hazardous material spilled after this. However, sometimes locomotives will leak diesel fuel after they derail, but it's unclear if any of these are leaking. Now, this was a high priority intermoal train going from Atlanta, Georgia to Rutherford, Pennsylvania. Rutherford and Atlanta both have large interotal terminals.

[00:01:53]I got here around 2:30 in the afternoon and crews were busy assessing the damage and figuring out how to get this wrecked equipment removed. Remember, this part of Norfick Southern's main line is single track and no traffic will be able to pass until they get the line back open.

[00:02:09]And that's where these guys come in. RJ Corman and HG Railroad Services. These are the contractors that railroads call when they need a derailment cleaned up.

[00:02:22]The first order of business, clear trees and brush so the heavy equipment can move in.

[00:02:29]Contractors like these use some pretty specialized equipment. The Caterpillar side boom tractors you see here were originally designed for pipe laying, but you'll see in a minute how they've been adapted to this task.

[00:02:44]Right now, an excavator is hard at work clearing a path so the lead locomotive can be dragged out of the woods.

[00:02:52]Yeah, it's actually bringing down entire pine trees on its own.

[00:02:59]Now, the side booms are crossing the tracks and getting into position.

[00:03:06]And after that, three machines are working together to drag this locomotive out of this ballast. Two tractors are lifting the unit while another one uses its winch to pull it. They'll have to reposition a few times to get this big engine where they want it. Now, locomotives are designed with areas where hooks or jacks can be inserted or placed. Something interesting here is that two contracting companies are on this scene and working together to get the job done. Keep in mind, locomotives like these weigh around 430,000 lb. And when you're lifting all that weight, well, sometimes stuff breaks.

[00:03:44]Like other jobs on the railroad, this can be dangerous work. Fortunately, the crews out here nowhere to safely stand to be out of the way if something like this happens. And a few minutes later, they're already making repairs. These tractors are actually equipped with tools like torches to fix things in the field.

[00:04:07]Meanwhile, another side boom was brought in to continue this move.

[00:04:24]You can now see the extent of the damage to this unit. The noses of these big freight diesels are made of heavy steel, thicker than sheet metal. They also feature strong collision posts up front which provide further protection.

[00:04:44]It's around 6:00 p.m. now and lights are being brought in. At this point, the rest of this train has been pulled south away from the scene. The next task will be getting these other two locomotives and the train cars uprighted and out of the way. This is going to be a long night, but amazingly, the main line was back open the next morning. Obviously, the good news here is that even though there's substantial damage, everyone walked away. Let's hope they're all doing okay now. Anyway, that's it for this video. As always, thanks for watching.