Atascadero is no stranger to train derailments

Early in July 1982 a PG&E crew was working on a project near Traffic Way where it crosses at Chico Road (now the entrance into The Lakes, Atascadero’s largest gated residential development).

A little before 7:30 a.m. the utility crew heard what it thought was an explosion. Actually, what the workers heard was the sound of eight cars from a southbound Southern Pacific freight train coming off the tracks. Of the 94 cars, 51 of them came to an abrupt halt. Forty-three cars of the train continued south until the engineer brought them to a stop. Scattered in the wreckage were one sulfuric acid tank car, two liquid petroleum tank cars, a box car, two open gondolas, one closed gondola and one flat car.

According to the news story written by journalist Brad Humphrey in the Atascadero News, one of the train cars crashed into a large oak, keeping it from sailing out onto Traffic Way. Several of the train cars turned over when they came off the tracks.

At the time of the derailment, there were no buildings on that tiny piece of land between the railroad right-of-way and Traffic Way. Now there are single-family houses and two civic buildings, one being the Masonic Temple. On the other side of the accident site was an open quarry and concrete batch plant. Today homes line both sides of Ferrocarril Road. Only some empty agricultural barns and a long-abandoned dairy were nearby on property now known as the aforementioned The Lakes development.

Some transients riding in a box car were slightly injured as a result of the derailment.

So when I hear something like the proposal of Phillips 66 to increase the number of tanker cars coming through this county, and more specifically, Atascadero, it makes me nervous. I went to that accident site 33 years ago and saw those large railroad cars strewn about like a child’s toy train.

Humphrey was able to report that the two liquid petroleum cars were empty. The sulfuric acid tank car was empty. All the tank cars were empty. None of the tank cars were ruptured.

We were lucky this time.

I hope the elected officials in Atascadero and Paso Robles join with San Luis Obispo in expressing concerns about any expansion of the Phillips 66 terminal in Santa Maria.

This story was originally published February 23, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Atascadero is no stranger to train derailments."