(The following article by Becky Shay was posted on the Billings Gazette website on October 23.)
BILLINGS, Mont. — Forty-three railcars loaded with soybeans derailed at Worden about 1 a.m. Saturday.
The wreckage was contained to rights-of-way along the railroad where mounds of soybeans and piles of crumpled and upturned railcars littered both sides of the tracks in an almost half-mile long swath. The wreck tore up several hundred feet of track.
The 109 cars of soybeans originated in East Dubuque, Ill., and were bound for Kalama, Wash., said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway. The train was traveling about 46 mph when the derailment happened, slower than the 50 mph limit for grain trains in that area, he said. There were no injuries.
Melonas said it was estimated that about half of the load was spilled when the cars derailed. The brown BNSF cars were twisted, and the nearly quarter-inch steel sides of the cars were shredded and curled in some spots. Melonas said the majority of the cars would have to be scrapped.
Some of the railcars were so mangled it was difficult to count how many were banged together, but at least eight lay on their sides and tops, pushed together in a jagged line.
“It’s like an accordion,” Katherine Sierra said. “It’s sad.”
Sierra and her husband, Ricardo, stopped to show their 10-year-old son, Romar, the derailment.
“You’ll never see anything like this again,” Katherine Sierra said.
Residents lined both sides of the tracks Saturday afternoon, many taking photos and visiting as they watched crews work.
At least six pieces of heavy equipment were working the derailment area. Track hoe operators used the equipment’s heavy scoops to help tip railcars upright. Side booms were used to winch cars upright and were lifting new sections of ties and tracks into place. Smaller dozers pushed piles of dirt and shoved soybeans into small hills.
Traffic on Highway 312 was slowed Saturday while belly dump trailers brought loads of fill to rebuild the base for the tracks. Otherwise, the derailment did not hinder travel.
Ellen Carlson has lived across from the tracks for 31 years and said she had never seen anything quite like the derailment, although she has feared it. Flashing red lights woke her shortly after 1 a.m.
“I was up at daylight this morning out here taking pictures,” Carlson said. “It’s a mess. It’s amazing how fast they are getting it cleared up.”
Melonas said crews from Billings and Havre were brought in to help move cars and straighten debris. Mounds of soybeans lined the railway, and more of the small round beans spilled as the cars were righted.
It will be three to four weeks before all of the debris is cleaned up, Melonas said. Equipment will be brought in to remove the spilled soybeans and haul them away.
There is a switch where the cars went off the tracks, Carlson said. The derailment was east of a small trestle over the irrigation ditch but did not extend far enough to close the Main Street crossing.
Several people in Worden said they were waked by a loud noise about the time of the derailment while others said they are so used to the trains banging that they did not notice anything unusual. Yellowstone County sheriff’s deputies responded to the wreck after the dispatch center received several calls of loud bangs.
Don Phillips and Rick Diefel, owners of Habaneros Mexican Restaurant and Cantina, said it was business as usual Saturday; however, customers had talked about the derailment. Phillips said he saw the wreckage when he came in to work Saturday morning and quickly made up about 30 breakfast burritos to take to the workers.
“Oh, they were happy to see me,” Phillips said. “There were some hungry boys.”
The derailment is being investigated by BNSF and no official cause was determined Saturday, Melonas said. The derailed cars were the eighth through 50th, he said. The rest of the train, which included four locomotives in front and one in the rear, was still in the area Saturday while plans were being made to move it, he said.
About 25 trains a day go through the single main line near Worden, Melonas said. Plans were being made to reroute some traffic; however, initial estimates were that the line could reopen as early as Sunday morning, he said.