Train Wreck

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CASPER TAYLOR must feel like a prophet wandering in the wilderness. Maryland's House speaker clearly sees the crux of the problem confronting this state as it prepares for the end of the century -- and yet no one listens.There's a train wreck headed Maryland's way -- and yet few politicians want to face up to it. You can't get re-elected governor by telling voters bad news. Legislators know citizens don't like to undergo major changes unless there's a crisis.So our leaders opt for easy answers that give voters immediate gratification.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bonnie Conkling was about to mail a sweater and a package of goodies to her daughter, Ceslee, yesterday morning when she heard about a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus train derailment in Lakeland, Fla.When Ceslee Conkling, a clown in the traveling circus, didn't telephone home for several hours, her parents feared the worst. They are a close family, her mother said, and Ceslee would often call the family's Azle residence several times a day while on the road.

At 4 p.m. on Sept. 6, 1943, the Pennsylvania Railroad's crack Congressional Limited -- nicknamed "the Congo," by railroaders -- slowly swayed through the switches and crossovers of Washington's Union Station bound for New York City. It was the nation's second wartime Labor Day, and on board the 16-car train comprised of Pullmans, day coaches and a diner were 541 passengers, including servicemen returning from weekend furloughs, parents who had visited sons at military installations and vacationers marking the end of summer.

Sifting the facts of the recent collision between four Amtrak locomotives and a Conrail coal train near Chase, the one clear lesson is that those who ignore the past aren't the only ones condemned to repeat it.In the April 12 collision, the Amtrak locomotives rammed the center of a 125-car Conrail freight train. It occurred perhaps 300 feet from the site of the 1987 wreck of Amtrak's Newport News-to-Boston Colonial -- which remains the worst accident in Amtrak's history.Sixteen people died and another 175 were hurt four years ago after the desperately-braking Colonial, pulling 12 passenger cars more than 100 miles per hour, rammed three Conrail freight engines in a shower of shredded metal and burning diesel oil.Although there were no deaths and far fewer injuries April 12, both accidents bear striking similarities.

Milton W. Brown, a fourth-generation railroader who was working on the main line in an Amtrak signal tower when Maryland's worst train wreck occurred in 1987, died Monday of heart failure at the Veterans Medical Center in Baltimore. The Gardenville resident was 61.Sixteen people were killed and 170 were injured on Jan. 4, 1987, when Amtrak's Boston-bound Colonial Express hit three stalled Conrail diesel locomotives in the eastern Baltimore County community of Chase.Mr. Brown was stationed at the Bay View tower in East Baltimore that Sunday afternoon when he routed three locomotives north over the main line of the railroad.

As reported Feb. 11, 1888, in The Sun: A freight wreck, attended with considerable damage to cars and freight and delay to passenger trains, occurred near Hollifield's Station, on the Main Stem of the B and O. Railroad, three miles above Ellicott City, about half past six o'clock this morning. Just as the east-bound train, heavily laden with miscellaneous freight and drawn by engine No. 420, was passing the switch at that place, a flange on one of the rear wheels of the car attached to the tender broke in consequence of which the wheel ran off and the axle fell upon the track.

THE MARC train that bore the brunt of last Friday's horrific collision carried young people whose restless energy and recent accomplishments illustrate why the American Dream is alive and well. The eight Job Corps members who died in the crash were returning to the Washington, D.C., area on weekend passes from a regional training center in Harper's Ferry, W.Va.. There are some 110 such centers around the country.These were young people who had seen their share of failure. But unlike many other troubled youth, they were getting a leg up on life in an intensive, seven-month residential program designed to give them the vocational training, personal discipline and social skills they will need to succeed in the work place.

THE FEDERAL budget debacle has handed right-wing ideologues a victory long denied them in the normal legislative process. Faced with escalating pressure to re-open the government last month, Congress and the White House agreed to a foreign aid budget that imposes cuts and restrictions that could disrupt family planning efforts around the world.The result also shows the true colors of the small House band who stymied attempts at compromise. These people, led by Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) are known for their ardent opposition to abortion, legal or illegal.

Federal investigators probing the train collision Friday near Chase today expressed concern over an eight-hour delay from the time of the crash to the time four crew members of the Conrail freight train submitted to urine tests.Alan Pollock, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, called the delay a "serious matter" and said Conrail officials delayed the testing of their crew members because the damage estimate was not clear during the first hours following the crash.The tests are required of all personnel involved in an accident if property damage exceeds $500,000.