MBTA Commuter Train Derailment in Belmont MA

Westbound passes disabled train

By Jonelle DeFelice

At approximately 8:25AM this morning, outbound MBTA commuter train #455 derailed just west of the Clark Street overpass in Belmont MA.

The train was accelerating westward around a curve after making a station stop at Belmont when the first coach behind locomotive #1123 left the rails.  It stayed upright, but its position made uncoupling of the locomotive difficult.  At around 11:30AM the locomotive was freed, and continued west light.

At 12:07PM MBTA work engine #3247 was waiting just east of Belmont station to take the train back to Boston as soon as it was back on the rails. 

Locomotive uncoupled and heading west



As the crews on the ground inspected the coach and track, and waited for a rail crane to arrive, east and westbound commuter trains were given slow orders and crept past the disabled train. 

At 1:18PM a large MBCR crane arrived and started to attach to the derailed coach.  The word was the crane was sent from Pan Am Railways, but this writer spotted an MBTA police car assisting two MBCR cranes by the station, and one of them was the crane that was spotted at the derailed coach.



MBTA work engine #3247 waits to work



At 1:39PM, the train's locomotive came back eastward past it's train.

As of 5:10PM, track work being done at the derailment location.  Word was a few hours ago the cause of the derailment was a heat-kink in the welded rail just west of the Clark Street bridge, but that could not be confirmed.