Derailment near Paoli laid to loose railroad bed ballast

An Amtrak official attributed the derailment Sunday of 24 freight cars west of Paoli station to insufficient shoulder ballast that caused the track to shift.

The spokesman said yesterday that the heavy crushed stone that makes up the ballast along the railroad bed was not tightly compacted and thus allowed the track to shift slightly.

The eastbound 125-car train derailed on a track used both for eastbound and westbound traffic on the Philadelphia-Harrisburg line. The wreckage spilled onto adjacent eastbound and westbound tracks, stopping all rail service for most of Sunday.

Philadelphia Inquirer 10/3/1980