(The following article by Karen Ogden was posted on the Great Falls Tribune website on September 28.)
SHELBY, Mont. — The first 42 cars of a 109-car grain train derailed Monday morning roughly six miles south of Shelby, spilling hundreds — possibly thousands — of tons of wheat bound for the coast.
No one was injured in the accident, which occurred as the train pulled out of a winding cut just north of the Marias River, Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said.
The battered cars lay scattered upside down or on their sides, some of them resting in an accordion pattern. In all, they carried roughly 5,000 tons of grain, although how much actually spilled was unknown Monday evening. Each car holds 120 tons.
Railroad investigators have not yet determined the cause.
By nightfall, a cleanup crew of roughly 60 had been assembled from Billings, Havre and Gillette Wyo., sucking up the grain with giant vacuum machines and working with heavy equipment.
Huge caterpillar tractors equipped with side booms and cables pushed and pulled the battered cars down the steep embankment along the tracks.
Melonas expected the line, which runs from Laurel near Billings to Shelby and on to Sweet Grass, to be cleared and reopened by this afternoon.
“We expect the majority of the cars will be cut up and scrapped on site over the next few weeks,” he said.
The railroad hopes to salvage as much of the grain as possible for milling, although spilled grain sometimes has to be downgraded and sold as feed.
The train was traveling from Selby, S.D., to Kalama, Wash.
BNSF records show it was traveling 25 mph as it moved from a 25-mph zone to a 49-mph zone, Melonas said.
The accident occurred in a remote area where the tracks cross private farmland near a site known as Naismith.
The last derailment on the line was within the past year between Conrad and Shelby, said Melonas, who could not provide the date or further details.
High winds derailed a mostly empty BNSF train at Midvale Creek near East Glacier last October.
In April, 2,800 tons of corn spilled when 28 grain cars derailed near Essex.
Although the Toole County Sheriff’s Office and other local emergency officials were notified of the derailment, no local response was necessary, said Undersheriff Don Hale.
However, at least one local hotel was gearing up to house the work crews.
At the Comfort Inn in Shelby, front desk attendant Cheri Hirst had rented 16 double rooms to the railroad.
“This is a good bump for us,” she said.