Csx

The derailment that killed two young women in Ellicott City Tuesday morning adds one more incident to a long history of CSX trains leaving the tracks in Maryland - from little-remembered events in the company's own railyards to the spectacular fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in 2001. It could be months before federal investigators determine the cause of the bizarre tragedy that occurred overnight in the historic Howard County mill town. The facts that emerged Tuesday suggested the fatalities were largely the result of trespassing on the tracks.

A CSX Corp. train collided with a vehicle Wednesday in Rosedale, injuring the car's driver, shortly before the car on another CSX train derailed in Woodstock, according to CSX and fire officials. The incidents were not related but occurred within minutes of each other and closed roads in Baltimore and Howard counties, officials said. About 12:30 p.m., an intermodal CSX train collided with a vehicle at the railway's intersection with Schaefer's Lane near Pulaski Highway, according to Bob Sullivan, a CSX spokesman.

Joseph Lawrence "Larry" Bohlen Jr., who had been director of risk management for CSX, died Friday of multiple organ failure at his Rossville home. He was 76. Mr. Bohlen, whose father was superintendent at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River and whose mother was a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on his family's farm in Rosedale. Mr. Bohlen — who did not use his first name — was a 1953 graduate of Kenwood High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and a law degree from the University of Baltimore.

Dorothy Acker and her 12-year-old daughter, Audrey, regularly search for new books at the Elkridge library - on a recent trip they were looking for titles on Audrey's middle-school summer reading list. The Elkridge library is closest to their home, but it has some drawbacks. "The library smells musty. It's kind of grungy inside," Dorothy Acker said. Many patrons feel that the library, like Elkridge, has long been neglected. The community has won some recent victories - fighting off a proposed rail transfer facility and securing money for new schools and a park - but residents maintain a touch of indignation when they talk about their neighbors in Ellicott City and Columbia.

After a 10-month closure, the Fort Avenue bridge in Locust Point reopened Friday, according to city officials. Two lanes — one in each direction — are now open to public traffic, though construction continues at the bridge, officials said. There may be single lane closures because of that construction, in which case transportation personnel will control traffic flow across the bridge, city officials said. The $6 million project to replace the bridge, which crosses over railroad tracks owned by the CSX Corp., was jointly funded by CSX and the city, and first closed the bridge in August 2011.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is urging CSX Transportation to find a site in the city for its multi-million dollar cargo transfer center rather than look for a site in suburbs to the south. In a letter to CSX President and CEO Michael J. Ward released Thursday, the mayor said she was "deeply troubled" that plans for the Baltimore-Washington Rail Intermodal Facility have stalled and expressed concern that if a new rail yard was not completed soon, "economic opportunity will pass us by. " The truck-to-rail center would allow CSX to bypass the narrow, century-old Howard Street tunnel beneath the city and double-stack containers trucked from the Port of Baltimore onto freight trains.

James C. Koliha, a retired CSX executive who later became an owner of a landmark Towson tavern, died Saturday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Maples of Towson, an assisted-living facility. He was 86. The son of a Swift & Co. executive and a homemaker, Mr. Koliha was born in Cleveland and raised in Brecksville, Ohio, where he graduated from Brecksville High School in 1943. He enlisted in the Navy that year and served on Guam and Tinian as a carpenter's mate in the Seabees.

Two freight trains collided shortly after 2 a.m. Friday while attempting to maneuver the rail line inside a CSX yard in Jessup, Howard County fire officials said. Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services responded to the 8400 block of Dorsey Run Road for reports of a train derailment at approximately 2:10 a.m., officials said. The conductors were the only two people on board at the time of the accident, and there were no injuries reported, according to officials.

CSX Corp. said Thursday that it would hire more than 140 employees in Maryland this year. The new employees, who will be based primarily in Baltimore and Cumberland, will operate trains and maintain tracks, locomotives and rail cars. The company maintains nearly 1,400 miles of track in Maryland and operates facilities in Baltimore, Cumberland, Hagerstown and Jessup. Applications are available on the company's website. CSX said it recruited military veterans, with nearly one in five of its employees having served in the armed forces.

It is incredibly frustrating, not only to myself but to many residents of the Elkridge/Hanover area, that CSX claims to elicit public involvement in the site selection process (for a new railway facility) yet continues to refuse to release details on how they arrived at their cost estimates for each of the proposed sites. Cost estimates for the proposed sites are not the only concern surrounding this issue but, in my opinion, CSX is being brazenly deceptive at this early stage of the process and I have a deep concern that CSX will continue to operate as such, if not more so, as the process continues.