Two die when train goes off tracks

ELLICOTT CITY, MD. – A train hauling coal derailed on a bridge in this city’s historic district, killing two college students who had been drinking together and hanging out on the tracks. Nearly two dozen railroad cars flipped over, including some that fell onto vehicles in a parking lot below the bridge, officials said.

The students, both 19-year-old women, posted photos and comments from what appeared to be the bridge shortly before the train derailed around midnight Monday, according to Twitter feeds with the same names as the victims.

“Looking down on old ec,” wrote Rose Louese Mayr, who posted an image of downtown Ellicott City.

Mayr was a student at the University of Delaware. She was killed along with her friend, Elizabeth Conway Nass. Nass attended James Madison University in Virginia.

Ellicott City is a picturesque small town where there are several bars, and gift and antique shops in converted old buildings. The railroad runs across Main Street in Ellicott City, about 13 miles west of Baltimore.