the locomotive behind me is quintessential american locomotive. that's what it's called american type, 440 steam locomotive. what those numbers refer to are wheel layout, the arrangement of the wheels. if you look, four wheels up front and four driving wheels, the wheels actually powered by the rod there and zero training wheels. no wheels under fire box. 440. if we talk about allegheny, we talk about 2666, obviously much bigger, many more driving wheels than 440. this is the one we picture in our head when we picture steam locomotives. this was by far the most popular used in the second half of the 19th century of united states. those two locomotives face-to-face, they were both 440s. absolutely necessary we have one of these in our collection. this was used in american south. locomotives, of course, very expensive. as railroads used them, they tried to get as much life as they can. but they age. they become underpowered for heavier trains, heavier service. this locomotive would have been increasingly demoted, on the hauling line, passenger freig

it's much shorter than modern locomotive. also today modern locomotives have platforms on the side and front. to get easy access to them. here you just have a few basic platforms. not particularly safe. that's a whole other issue too. visitors will ask why we don't operate these. the fact is that one these are museum pieces we're trying to preserve them. any time you operate something you tend to ware the original fabric. so the object becomes a little less original. also frankly there's a great deal of expense into bringing it back into operating capacity. and there's just the issue of size. there's no way we could operate it. now we do have an operating steam railroad next door. we have a two mile track. we have three all 19th century vintage locomotives we keep in regular operating condition. we like to say are we preserving that experience. we're preserving the skills required to operate and maintain the locomotives. people aren't learning that anymore. so we tend to get people here rather young and they're drawn to the s

at one time, this locomotive would have been the largest locomotive in service. as the decades passed, it became too small for the loads to carry and it was relegated to yard work. after the locomotive became too small for yard work, the power system to be transfer to run a transferred to run a saw mill or water pump or everything would be cannibalized and scrapped and made into new material. another personality you're going to meet today is captain thomas sharp. captain thomas sharp was a railroad executive prior to the war. he worked for the quartermaster department in richmond, virginia. in the spring of 1861, stonewall jackson captured about 20 or 30 trains, a number of rail cars, locomotives, and other equipment at martinsburg. unfortunately for the confederacy, there was no railroad that ran south from martinsburg along the shenandoah valley until you got to strasbourg. sharp and a team of experts came out to martinsburg and came up with the idea of moving the locomotives by road. what they did, they jacked up the locomotives. they took off all the extra wh

rather than rebuild the tracks, they bought small locomotives. by the time the war began, they were upgrading their system, but this engine was still in service. in fact, in 1862 after the antietam campaign, jeff stewart made a cavalry raid into chambersburg and this little locomotive was severely damaged. it now belongs to the smithsonian institution and is on loan here. we of the many locomotives are stored in our restoration shop. as can be imagined, one of the primary missions of the bso railroad was hauling freight. by the end of the civil war, the railroad had over 1200 boxcars. when the war began, the railroad always on the leading edge of technology was experimenting with iron boxcars as opposed to wood. wood was lighter, but iron was more durable. these cars were used to haul gunpowder and ammunition during the war. they were built right here in the mount clare complex. there were approximately 140 of these type of railcars in service during the civil war. i had the privilege of giving the curator of the west point museum a tour and he w

engineer. >> the locomotive engineer. you're the expert, you tell me, sir. and the train taking care of passengers. i'm talking about the driver, the engineer. the driver, he's the one operating the train. if he's complying with the speed restrictions and this, i understand, was a 30 mile an hour curve, they're going to know that. they're going to see that on the video in front of the locomotive and you'll see it on the event recorder, and there are all kinds of reasons for engineers to overspeed. we've had a number of accidents where the engineers on commuter trains have been falling asleep and i've been caught napping and the chronic fatigue and things like that. >> this was an inaugural run and i would not expect that, i would expect maybe there might be some kind of distraction and it was the first time since this was a maiden run. that could have been factored in here, too. >> russ, i noticed some of the train cars and investigators are spray painting numbers and circles. do you know the significance of that? >> i'm

we have a rolling stock locomotive collection of approximately 180 pieces. the roundhouse is filled with some of the most unique, world-class, one-of-a-kind locomotives you are ever going to find anywhere. railroading began in the united states in maryland, the baltimore and ohio was the first common carrier, the first to carry passengers and freight on a regular schedule. the baltimore and ohio was basically formed because of the canal craze in the 1820's. the success of the erie canal lead people in washington to propose the idea of the chesapeake and ohio canal, which would leave baltimore out of the loop. a bunch of businesses were very familiar with what was going on in england at the time, where railroading began about 15 years earlier. so they went to england. they explored the idea of building a railroad here. and they decided that it was going to be the best way to go. so the baltimore and ohio was incorporated in 1827. the intent was to take it from baltimore to the ohio river, a journey of 382 miles. it took the b&o five years to -- 25 years to co

flap flatbed truck brought in to haul it away. >> that locomotive weighed 270,000 pounds. it required a special low boy trailer which also requires two tractors to actually move. that one in the front and one in the back, it's quite an ordeal. >> reporter: the train's event data recorder shows the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. when it federal investigators say it appears the engineer did not manually slow the train down as it approached the curve. >> the emergency brake was automatically activated when the accident was occurring. rather than being initiated by the engineer. >> reporter: the national transportation safety board is looking into whether the engineer didn't sense the danger because he was distracted. there were two people in the lead locomotive cab. the engineer and a conductor in training. both men were injured in the crash. investigators are working to interview crew members as soon as doctors say it's okay to do so. new photos show the damage from inside the passenger compartment. the ntsb says the video recording syst

whatever happened, whether the locomotive got over or past whatever they struck, a lot of times the locomotive if they strike something will damage the rail, spread the rails and cause it to be broken and a lot of the damage comes from behind. the engine will get over it most of the time. that may be what took place here. that's pure speculation. >> i want to apologize for the live feed. sometimes the cameras pull away. we have no control over that. the affiliates are trying to provide us with the best coverage possible. the crash aftermath. we are in the early mornings and there are injuries here. they don't know how many they are. if you are being look at the pictures, what jumps out in your head? when you see obviously the heavy trauma to the train down on to the highway. >> the initial view of a derailment would be to look at the track to see if there were track defects. the next thing that i would look at would be the speed of the train. you are dealing with an inaugural movement and the first time this movement occurred. speed and track is the main thing. you would look at of course the

uses sensors along the track to communicate with locomotives.showed us how the technology takes over a speeding train. if you accelerate now, it won't let you? >> i can't do it. it's locked. even if i try, i have no power, because the brakes are applied. >> reporter: this deadly 2008 accident in california prompted congress to mandate p.t.c. by 8he end of 2015, but that year, just months after the amtrak derailment in philadelphia, congress voted to delay the deadline until 2018. now, only about 40% of passenger locomotives have p.t.c. installed. alleeople have died as a result of that extension. >> reporter: mark rosenker was the chair of the n.t.s.b. in 2008. w railroads basically went to congress and said, we're not going to operate unless we get relief. you couldn't just stop america's railroads. congress caved in. >> reporter: this year, the trump administration has five times delayed a requirement for passenger railroads to develop a system-wide safety plan, and it has abandoned rules for stricter sleep apnea testing, despite a series of d

now only about 40% of passenger locomotives have p.t.c. installed. >> people have died as a result of that extension. >> reporter: mark rosenker was the chair of the n.t.s.b. in 2008. >> railroads basically went to congress and said, we're not going to operate unless we get relief. you couldn't just stop america's railroads. congress caved in. >> reporter: this year the trump administration has five times delayed a requirement for passenger railroads to develop a system-wide safety plan, and it has abandoned rules for stricter sleep apnea testing despite a series of deadly crashes and against n.t.s.b. recommendations. matthew lehner was the spokesman under president obama. >> some of the actions by this administration are definitely moving us backward and not forward on having a safer rail system. >> reporter: the current department of transportation explained its decisions this way. in terms of those safety plan, they say they needed more times to review comments. with reference to sleap -- sleep apnea, they said they felt existing regula

the train was a 12 car train, and he had a locomotive both in the front and the back. amtrak estimates that 80 passengers were on the train with three crew into service personnel in the cafe cart. >> jon: joining us now, railroad investigator. we are talking to you 24 hours ago when all we had some of the horrible pictures of those train cars still down on the i five from that overpass. what do we know now? yes, speed was a factor, but is there more to it? >> obviously it looks like the engineer may have come upon some of situational awareness, where he lost track of where he was at, because that curve, obviously, 30-mile-an-hour curve is at a very crucial point, and you're coming out a 70-mile-an-hour track. whether it was a judgment factor whether he lost track of where he was. either way, it is a real tragedy. and again, a tragedy that could've been prevented with the proper equipment. in >> jon: i was reading this morning, do our speed limit signs that essentially start to miles in advance of that curve, telling the engineer to slow down appeared for those of us th

there was a conductor trainee in the cab of this locomotive at the time that it derailed.t person was familiarizing themselves with the route. the ntsb will be looking at many factors, including whether or not this person, this trainee conductor was some sort of distraction in the cab. engineer who was injured was familiar with this route, had been down it before. they are looking at all of these things, but they are not yet ready to determine a cause of this crash. clayton sandell, abc news, dupont, washington. >>> now to some breaking news. one of the central figures of the catholic church abuse scandal, cardinal law, has died. he was the archbishop of boston in 2002 when it was revealed he had transferred abusive priests for years without telling parishioners. he spoke about it later with george stephanopoulos. >> looking back, do you think there's anything more you could have done? >> all of us deplore in our own lives and the lives of others failure to live out fully the message of christ. and in my own ministry, i've attempted to be faithful to >> after his resignati

investigators are trying to find out if the engineer was distracted by the trainee in the locomotive. they're trying to determine why the train was traveling 50 miles an hour over the speed limit. chris martinez reports. >> reporter: the train flew off the tracks on wednesday. the amtrak train was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. >> we were able to obtain the inward and outward facing cameras. they were unfortunately significantly damaged. >> reporter: at least three people were killed and dozens were injured on the maiden voyage of this newly opened train line. drivers who saw the wreck stopped to try to help the victims. >> many were killed or pinned. >> yeah, it was pretty sobering. >> reporter: in addition to the engineer present in the locomotive cab, there was also a conductor learning the route. all of the crew was hospitalized. >> we have to keep this as a wakeup call. it's not acceptable that we're involved in these kinds of accidents. >> reporter: ntsb investigators say it appears the emergency brake kicked in automatically rather than being activat

did it function properly, not only the locomotive but the brakes. positive train control, we know that this train was apparently equipped with positive train control but by one account that wasn't supposed to be activated until next year, so how is it possible that this brand new line in which they were putting new locomotives on, they were running trains without ptc when it's been proven across the country to being a key to preventing accidents. so there's a lot still to be done on the forensics end and my hunch is it will be several days before they move the low moek t -- locomotive and the train off the tracks. >> how long, tom? au obviously when you're looking at one of the busiest corridors in that part of the country and you add to that the christmas rush, there are going to be a lot of people looking to see when might this be up again, when might it get not just cleared but obviously will investigators say, okay, we can re-open this part of i-5. >> listen, i-5 may open sooner but the tracks themselves, my hunch is it will be several days at l

well steam locomotives as you see here behind me have been pretty much been confined to museums here in europe but not in south africa there steam engines are going strong and have even become a tourist attraction let's take a look at that story. it's certainly not to anyone in a hurry that barely sixty kilometers an hour this steam train has its way between cape town and the fulton wine mecca of serious. driver your hand foolery had already been retired for a few years until his former company called him back in no one else knows anything about steam trains these days. this one was made in england in one nine hundred forty eight it's called domain. for others for many years of all steam locomotives have women's names we treat them like a woman and they treat us well back although this one isn't behaving so well today you love the steam train so much that once you've driven the me. can't imagine anything else diesel and electric engines feel dead in comparison with this locomotive you feel it when you drive for. the train office travelers the long forgotten comforts. instead of cramp

it consists of 14 cars including two locomotives. by a charger locomotive, and a p52 was trailing and was not under power. there was also 12 cargo passenger cars including business class and coach cars into food-service car. the coach's car has six seats. we have 77 customers traveling with us as well as seven amtrak crewmembers. immediately following the derailment, emergency services management team was initiated. we have many people on site now, and we have more people coming in from the east coast to be able to support this endeavor. this is sound transit track, and dispatched by the bnsf. amtrak is a vendor for the washington state department of transportation come at the amtrak cascade lane. once again, amtrak is going to do everything possible to take care of the passengers and employees, their families. affected by today's event. make it. >> there has been a lot of talk about the speed. can you say what the dash whether this train was going too fast? >> it is being investigated by bnsf, and anything beyond that to the finding

not stop it's called a locomotive is not a country zanu p.f. as far as he's concerned he is a live here call for true force transformation within the country if there is falls it has his articles from thirty five years it's trash we made mistakes trashed democracy in the trash now can't we don't trust democrats but yes we made mistakes and yes we messed up the economy status really disastrous whatever whatever line you turn when you're in. very friendly guy you're a nice jovial sort of falling over the edge for whatever line you turn you know full well the system and gaggle is hostage to the brutality of the brutal record of zanu p.f. using your theory this period as head of central intelligence in the mid 1980's coincided with the most brutal of all mugabe's massacres in the so-called blue collar killings in which up to twenty thousand from the in the bailey tribe were killed disappear was denied any role but actually the state controlled by the way a chronicle reported at the time that he compared to citizens to bugs cockroaches that is such

more than 70 were injured when 12 train cars and a locomotive jumped the rail, some cars falling to the road below. immediately after the derailment, the conductor called for help. >> we were coming around the corn eaer and we went on the ground. >> is everybody okay? >> i'm still figuring that out. we got cars everywhere and down on to the highway. >> the ntsb says it's not known what caused the train to derail and it's too early to know why it was going so fast. kenneth craig is in washington with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, ann marie. still a massive scene out here and this is where it all happened. take a look down the interstate here. you can see that crumbled mess of a train that we now know was going 50 miles an hour faster than it should have been. >> investigators trying to figure out what caused the train derailment in washington state that killed at least three say they have recovered the event data recorder from the rear of the train. the national transportation safety board says information so far indicates speed may have played a role. >> pr

>> we have recovered one black box from the rear locomotive. there are two, one in the front and one in the rear. and that's where we're able to get the information that the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour. >> i know you said you didn't speak to the crew, but have you heard of any reported signals that could have been a warning? >> that's one of the things we're going to be looking at. we're going to look at all of the signals as well as the track, as well as the mechanics. and human factors. that's part of interviewing the crew as well as looking at all the operations bulletins and some of the records to find out what exactly was the speed environment and the requirements for this area. >> well, i want to stay on that speed environment because that's definitely a human factor. with the train going triple the appropriate limit, would that be enough to knock the train off the tracks? >> if a train is going around a curve and it is going too fast, yes, it will derail. but in this case, what we need to find out is whether there was positi

. >>> crews removed the locomotive from monday's deadly train derailment in washington state. the train was traveling 80 miles per hour in a 30 miles per hour zone. plus, investigators say it appears that the engineer did not manually slow the train down as it entered the curve. the emergency brake was automatically activated. it is possible that someone training inside the lead locomotive cab. >>> the memory of a woman killed in the charlottesville white nationalist rally protest will live on for years to come. the same street where she was killed bares her name, heather heyer way. people gathered to honor her life and legacy, including her mother. >> i'm glad that they recognize what she means to the history of the city. but i'm also glad that she is only a small memorial. she is really only a small part of the rich history of the city. >> she was killed back in august after a driver plowed through a crowd of counter protesters during the white nationalist rally. >>> here is a look at the other stories we're working on for you tonight. eninem set his sites on the rapper. >>>

was coming over, and it will also through the actual recorder, the event recorder on board the locomotive show if, in fact, the engineer attempted to do any type of braking. an emergency braking would be absolutely amazing, and it may have been a contributing factor to the accident if, in fact there were problems with the track. >> reporter: why would the breaking have been a contributing factor? >> because it could have been moving so fast, and it could actually get a kind of a push-pull effect as the cars begin to come on top ofantlooking it to tell, but it appears th there male inside the train. actually, it might have been a re highway. there you can see the massive response of first responders. the door on the car that is dangling looks open, so hopefully people were able to get out of that car. we this one passenger we spoke to said he had to kick out the emergency window to get out of the car on the embankment, which would have been behind the lookg at now. this is a live picture of thent, washington. again, this is a train, this was train 501, cascades service, which travels fromo

. >> reporter: in addition to the engineer present in the locomotive cab, there was also a conductor learning the route. all of the crew was hospitalized. >> we have to keep this as a wakeup call. it's not accept thabl we're involved in these kinds of accidents. >> reporter: ntsb investigators say it appears the emergency brake was kicked on rather than by the engineer. it was not in use on that stretch of track. congress pushed back the mandatory implementation of ptc until the end of next year. >> railroads basically said to congress we're not going to operate unless you get relief. you couldn't just stop america's railroads. congress caved in. >> reporter: train cars are being taken in for further inspection. >>> the trump administration wants to hold north korea accountable for the massive cyber attack the u.s. says they received back in may. the wannacry cyber attack crippled britain and affected thousands of computers around the world. some experts believe it was an attempt by cash strapped north korea to get money. >> i think the ransom element may have been some of the guidan

was coming over, and it will also through the actual recorder, the event recorder on board the locomotive, show if, in fact, the engineer attempted to do any type of braking. an emergency braking would be absolutely amazing, and it may have been a contributing factor to the accident if, in fact, there were problems with the track. >> reporter: why would the breaking have been a contributing factor? >> because it could have been moving so fast, and it could actually get a kind of a push-pull effect as the cars begin to come on top of each other. >> mason: yeah, we just want to point out to people who are looking at this now, it is difficult to tell, but it appears that there may be people inside the train. actually, it might have been a reflection of people down on the highway. there you can see the massive response of first responders. the door on the car that is dangling looks open, so hopefully people were able to get out of that car. we this know that the one passenger we spoke to said he had to kick out the emergency window to get out of the car on the embankment, which would have bee

retired amtrak locomotive engineer.nd former officer of the brotherhood of locomotive engineers and train men. that's a lot of people asking that question, that the train was traveling more than twice the speed. what's your thought about that? what did you think when you heard that? >> let me just be cleeshgs i don clear, i don't speak for the brotherhood of locomotives and train men. that organization has their own spokesperson and they're party to what's going on and i do not speak on behalf of any of those unions. >> understood. >> but it is a tragedy that i have to be here again, that we have to have this conversation again, but it's a very critical conversation and i think the first thing i would like to make clear is that speed is not, per se, a cause of railroad wrecks. it is a symptom. it is a symptom of a cause and, in many cases, more than one cause. and it's pretty important, especially for lay people who don't actually run the trains and things to make sure they have that clear in their mind, that it's not a

and there was a trainee in the locomotive cab with the engineer.d taken practice runs, we should point out, on the new route between seattle and portland. but he did not activate the emergency the brake when the train derailed. and now they are looking into whether or not the engineer was distracted. >> the ntsb hasn't been able to interview the train crew yet. all of them are still hospitalized. but investigators are analyzing the train's data recorder's and video from its cameras. abc's clayton sandell has more. >> reporter: giant cranes began picking up the pieces of amtrak 501. crews are working around the clock, removing wreckage. from interstate 5, still shut down going south. >> amtrak 501. emergency, emergency, emergency. we are on the ground. >> reporter: investigators are focussing on the train's speed before it came crashing onto drivers below, 80 miles per hour, well above the 30-mile-per-hour limit. >> the emergency brake was automatically activated when the accident was occurring, rather than being initiated by the engineer. >> report

crews still have to remove the locomotive. >> it weighs over 270,000 pounds. it is extremely heavy. it's going to take quite a feat to get that out of there. >> reporter: the ntsb says speed may have been a factor in yesterday's deadly derailment. the event data recorder shows the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30 mile-per- hour zone. at least three people were killed and dozens were injured on the maiden voyage of this newly opened train line. the associated press is reporting investigators are looking into whether the engineer was distracted by an employee in training in the locomotive cab. according to radio chatter, the engineer was bleeding from his head after the wreck and both eyes were swollen shut. the ntsb says it's recommended safety features like automatic braking known as positive train control for decades. >> it certainly does prevent accidents that are overspeed accidents that cause derailments. >> reporter: the former ntsb chair says there's one simple reason the technology isn't in use everywhere. >> because of the dollars that need to be spent that's

now there were two locomotives on this train. 1 in front was sely of the train and appears to have stayed on the tracks. crash investigators got the black box from this locomotive today. the data shows the train was traveling at 81 miles an hour entering the curve, 51 miles an hour over the speed limit for that section of track. >>> there is a plan to run a natural gas pipeline under part of the potomac and people are not happy about it. we're going to tell you what's going on there. >> plus all things holiday shipping from a scam our verify team caught to an inside look at what's going on at the post office tonight. >> and the chief getting us in the holiday spirit talking about some pretty cold air on the way. top? >> not so bad, though, tomorrow morning. we have a cold front pushing through tonight, but by 6 a.m. only 47 downtown, 42 in gaithersburg, 41 in manassas. by 9:00 we're still in the low to mid-40s, 45 in bowie, 44 in bethesda. we'll come back, talk about when the cooler air rolls in seven-day. >> we're closely watchi

, the car behind the locomotive, called the power car, it has 350 gallons of diesel fuel, that was leakingea, the department of ecology along with amtrak are working on a long—term mitigation plan to retrieve that fluid. that is going to take them a little while to complete that. in the sense of all the patients transported, we open our protocols for disaster medicine, and we transported everybody to local hospitals. and that is about all i have at this time. could you give us your name at this time? jay sumerlim. (inaudible). does anything prepare you for something like this — have you ever seen... ?i something like this — have you ever seen... ? i have been to other train derailments in the area, the other amtrak train at universal place and we have a couple of other speakers. sir, who are you with? we are here with chief baptist. as you know, at approximately 7:37am washington state patrol began to receive 911 calls relating to a major derailment affecting interstate five. upon arrival it was a very complex situation from the beginning until now. we have been working very closely with f

with one locomotive? did they test it with this combination of train cars?s was a fairly long train. granted, it wasn't full. did that have anything to do with it? 78 people on a train that could have held far more, but we don't know exactly how the testing was and here based on what we can see in the pictures, both a pusher locomotive in the back and a puller at the front, we don't know the combination of which one was actually doing the work on this particular trip, but we don't know what the testing was. >> they said it was okay, and the combinations of the lines and the changes they made and you conclude it was not okay. >> 77 people taken to the hospital out of a total of 78 on this train. five crew member, drew and mary, thank you so much for both of your voices and expertise here. as we go to break, let me tell you as we get more and more piece of information in washington state, we are hearing from those who survived this horrific crash. their words next. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. pre

that locomotive scheduled to be loaded up today and driven off. they found the bridge itself from which the train cars fell is structurally sound. they hope to have interstate 5 opened later today. and fox news alert as president trump is on the verge of his biggest legislative victory to date with the house set to take a final vote on the gop tax bill. it should happen any minute now. >> i'm heather childress. anything could happen as was proven yesterday. we're live on capitol hill awaiting action on the house floor after the senate narrowly passed the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades. they voted along party lines as expected but it was -- the version passed in the house was tweaked to satisfy procedural rules and house will take a final vote on the bill with a tax cut. house speaker paul ryan says it will help hard working families. >> all tax rates go down. the top rate and every rate in between are lowered. we double the standard deduction. you can see our postcard. i like to bring this thing up. still nearly 9 out of 10 people in americ

crews finally were able to move that locomotive in jumped the tracks near tacoma killing three peoplewas so heavy it took two tractors to move it. the train was going 50 above the speed limit for that area when it flew off the rails. federal investigators say the emergency brake kicked in automatically that the engineer did not activate it manually. >> with the movement of this tractor or of the locomotive, this is now going to finally give us access to areas of the road and to debris that we did not have access to earlier. >> meantime a 4-mile stretch of the southbound interstate five is still closed. state highway officials say they have to remove a locomotive and mack sure that the road is safe before they reopen that stretch to traffic. >>> former boston cardinal bernard law has died. once the archbishop emeritus of boston and more recent em broil in the roman catholic church sex abuse scandal, law died this week at the age of 86 he resigned in 2002 after church documents revealed he had extensive knowledge of sexual abuse committed by dozens of catholic priests in archdiocese. so

but at this point looking at the locomotive i didn't see a lot of damage on the font of the locomotive so i don't know. i'm 10 miles from there and try to make my way out there very soon but traffic is outrageous. >> melissa: i can imagine. i'm looking at some of the witness accounts online on social media. they are saying it felt like they were suddenly going downhill and then they hit the seats in front of them. what must that impact have been like? >> it had to be very frightening. something this large moving that fast and all of a sudden having speed deterred obviously all the kinetic energy and everything else involved it will be very treacherous. probably a good thing the one half of the car is still hung up. it probably cushioned from a lot worse blow. there is so much to find out here. i know in the next hours we'll have more information. >> melissa: you mentioned if you look at the picture closely the car in front of the one dangling from the overpass is still on the track. so this wasn't the lead car. what do you infer from that? >> well, that's so hard. in an instant like th

only 41% of all passenger locomotives and 20% of tracks are equipped with ptc. new developments from washington state. we've got the latest on air and on the free abc 7 news app. hundreds of airport workers at dulles say they plan to strike during one of the biggest travel weeks of the year. employees at dulles are demanding higher wages and benefits. they also want the right to unionize. many of the workers received tips but say they must work two to three jobs just to survive. now to the weather just days away from the official start of winter. steve is here with a check of the forecast. steve: right now. temperatures are well above average for this time of year. even a few golfers playing out there at belle haven country club in alexandria. toat reagan national airport 60 in fredericksburg. upper 50's annapolis and in woodbridge. uneventfulnd radar at least for this afternoon. we have a dry cold front that will give us a change in wind direction. high temperatures for today not so typical for less than a week away from christmas. highs will be around 60 degre

remember we don't know if this was a push-pull train meaning that the locomotive was, in fact, actuallyl they look at cell phone records? >> they'll certainly be looking at the engineer, and the crew. but, they'll also be doing a toxicology test as it relates to any type of drugs or alcohol. >> we know that this derailment happened just at about 7:30 a.m. pacific time. so, probably the early end of the commute out there. this was amtrak train number 501, which operates between seattle and portland. we've just gotten in some video from someone who saw part of this train derailment. let's take a look. there you can see someone driving by, and probably pulled out a camera there to look at that one, which is a lot of backed up traffic, because all of the southbound traffic there has been blocked, but also the emergency response. you can see there a picture of really just how -- where those train cars, if not several of them, just went careening off of that bridge or overpass onto interstate 5. this is actually, for other people who may know joint because lewis mccord, this is right around t

stumped up most of the capital chinese companies laid the tracks and delivered around sixty diesel locomotives and seventeen hundred carriages the opening of this artery of communications in eastern africa is a great achievement of the friendship between china and kenya in the new era it is also the chrysalis zation of the win win and mutually beneficial cooperation between china and kenya. this stretch is just the beginning they are a big plans afoot for expanding kenya's rail network this line that links the capital with east africa's most important port the transport of goods a lot of them chinese of course should become much cheaper the new link should more than half the travel time from around ten hours to just four passenger tickets cost around eight euros but contracts for the massive projects have also raised questions there was no transparent tender process and there's talk of corruption critics say kenya is being sold obsolete technology at an exorbitant price on credit which has to be paid back at high interest rates. you know african leaders think china is santa claus they're not s

the lead locomotive was hauled away on a giant trailer.eople were killed. 100 hurt monday when the train ran off the tracks on to interstate 5. after taking a 30 mile an hour curve at 80. federal investigators are looking into whether the engineer was distracted by a second person in the cab. >> olympic medalist, suing usa gymnastics. she says the organization tried to cover-up her allegations of sexual abuse, against former team dr. larry nassir. in the $1.25 million and signed a nondisclosure agreement. dr. jon lapook has more. >> in the lawsuit, she accuses usa gymnastics of covering up sexual abuse by coercing her into signing the agreement. first revealed abuse in a twitter post, writing that nassir's abuse started when i was 13 and didn't end until i left the sport. john manley, represents 100 girls and young women alleging sexual abuse by larry nassir. >> of course it is a cover-up. if you are not covering it up. why are you asking her to be quiet. >> he says they took advantage of her fragile psychological state. >> wanted to keep

the front locomotive went over an embankment.off a bridge on to the highway below. national transportation board is examining the data report. >> preliminary indications are the train was traveling at, 80 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour track. >> amtrak is offered no explanation as to why the train was traveling at more than twice the speed limit. radio transmissions after the person in the locomotive with the engineer, which could have been a distraction. >> seems to have a broken fee mur. -- femur. >> a former railroad accident investigator he says investigators will focus on the engineer action. >> the engineering being asleep or distracted. we could also have some kind of medical issue. cropped up. >> daniel councilman and his girlfriend, alicia hoverton were driving when they saw the train wreck and immediately jumped out to help. >> everybody inside was killed or pinned underneath the train. yeah, pretty sobering. >> years before yesterday's first run, a local may your sued to make the route safer. he lost. in light of

you can see the locomotive, we believe, one of those new high-speed locomotives, still appears to ben the track, but the rest of the cars are twisted in various locations. this area, we were told, had positive train control. you may have heard that discussed in previous derailments. it has to do with the ability to do an emergency stop of the train itself. we're told this was equipped with that kind of equipment. jole jole ling kent, you have some more? >> we have some new information from the pierce county sheriff department, and they are saying now that the derailed amtrak passenger train which was going in a southbound direction has resulted in injuries and casualties. the numbers are to come, but law enforcement continues to gravitate towards the area to respond to this. but again, this derailed amtrak train has caused injuries and casualties. and again, this was a passenger train w train, a new route going the southbound direction, one of amtrak's high-speed services. >> all right, that is sad to hear, but frankly expected given the enormity of what we're looking at and the cond

speed information from a data report, the equivalent of the black rocks located in the rear of the locomotiveat was of course the only car that stayed on the track. the train had another one of these data recorders at the front of the train. that car, destroyed. they are trying to recover the box in get more information but all they are saying right now is that the train was definitely speeding over the limit and not quite getting to the point where they are saying that it was definitely the cause. larry: do you know when they might be able to free up in clear the area? it's such a big and busy court or. >> they are trying to have it cleared up by later this morning , they'reow that again working overtime. we saw the press conference from the ntsb just a few hours ago. more and more officials on the ground, just coming colleagues flights, we saw officials coming down here, trying to clear the area but still maintain that this is an active crime scene and investigation at this time. larry: thank you for the update, talk you soon. looking ahead to what comes next , one of the first questions th