The CSX train left Oak Point Yard near Hunts Point in the South Bronx at 6:30 p.m. that evening.
The weather was clear and hot—temperatures were above 90 °F (32 °C), as they had been for the previous three days, enough for the National Weather Service to have issued a heat advisory for the city.
A crew of four, an engineer and conductor plus a trainee for those positions, led a consist of two locomotives and 24 flatcars specially modified to carry four large containers of solid waste collected by New York's sanitation department to a landfill in Virginia.

From Oak Point the train went first south along the Northeast Corridor line also used by Amtrak, until it left to follow a spur west along the north side of the Bronx Kill and, after that, the Harlem River, where the track turned northwest to follow the river.
At Highbridge Yard, the train followed the track as it merged onto those used by Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line commuter rail service from Grand Central Station to points along the east bank of the Hudson River as far north as Poughkeepsie.
It was one of four such waste trains that regularly use the Hudson Line's tracks each night; two northbound with full containers and two southbound returning the emptied ones.

There are generally two tracks along this stretch, both electrified with third rails for Metro-North's electric multiple unit trains serving the stations along the Hudson Line south of Croton-Harmon in Westchester County.
With a few exceptions, they are immediately adjacent to the river and almost completely level.
They consist of ribbon rail laid in standard gauge on prestressed concrete ties supported by a bed of crushed trap rock ballast.

In Metro-North territory, the train passed the Morris Heights and University Heights stations, serving those areas of the Bronx.
Just north of the latter, a third track diverged to allow trains to bypass the Marble Hill station, in a mainland section of Manhattan, where passenger trains stop more frequently, allowing a transfer to the nearby subway station.
Metro-North rates the tracks in this area as Class 2 under Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) guidelines, allowing a passenger speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and a freight speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) 10 mph below that allowed by the FRA.
The CSX train left Oak Point Yard near Hunts Point in the South Bronx at 6:30 p.m. that evening. The weather was clear and hot—temperatures were above 90 °F (32 °C), as they had been for the previous three days, enough for the National Weather Service to have issued a heat advisory for the city. A crew of four, an engineer and conductor plus a trainee for those positions, led a consist of two locomotives and 24 flatcars specially modified to carry four large containers of solid waste collected by New York's sanitation department to a landfill in Virginia.
From Oak Point the train went first south along the Northeast Corridor line also used by Amtrak, until it left to follow a spur west along the north side of the Bronx Kill and, after that, the Harlem River, where the track turned northwest to follow the river. At Highbridge Yard, the train followed the track as it merged onto those used by Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line commuter rail service from Grand Central Station to points along the east bank of the Hudson River as far north as Poughkeepsie. It was one of four such waste trains that regularly use the Hudson Line's tracks each night; two northbound with full containers and two southbound returning the emptied ones.
There are generally two tracks along this stretch, both electrified with third rails for Metro-North's electric multiple unit trains serving the stations along the Hudson Line south of Croton-Harmon in Westchester County. With a few exceptions, they are immediately adjacent to the river and almost completely level. They consist of ribbon rail laid in standard gauge on prestressed concrete ties supported by a bed of crushed trap rock ballast.
In Metro-North territory, the train passed the Morris Heights and University Heights stations, serving those areas of the Bronx. Just north of the latter, a third track diverged to allow trains to bypass the Marble Hill station, in a mainland section of Manhattan, where passenger trains stop more frequently, allowing a transfer to the nearby subway station. Metro-North rates the tracks in this area as Class 2 under Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) guidelines, allowing a passenger speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and a freight speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) 10 mph below that allowed by the FRA.
July 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment