(The following story by Christopher Bjorke appeared on the Bismarck Tribune website on July 12, 2010.)
BISMARCK, N.D. — Freight trains resumed rolling past Brian Ternes’ house in the Apple Creek area early Monday morning following a derailment Saturday afternoon.
“By midnight, they were already dragging stuff off the track,” said Ternes, whose home overlooks the track where 31 coal cars went off the track, spilling tons of coal but injuring no one.
“They’ve got if figured out,” he said. “It’s not their first rodeo.”
BNSF Railway spokeswoman Amy McBeth said the rail line was opened around 4 a.m. Monday. Some trains were still running behind schedule, but they were following their regular routes. BNSF had been rerouting or holding back trains while the track was being cleared.
Handling the clean-up is R.J. Corman Derailment Services, a Kentucky company that subcontracts with railroads to respond to accidents. It sent out about 30 workers from offices in Fargo; Billings, Mont.; and Gillette, Wyo.; with trucks and heavy equipment to clear the tracks and begin cleaning up the coal, according to Noel Rush, a vice president with the company. By Monday afternoon, only the Fargo crew remained on the accident site.
Workers were clearing the tracks and moving the damaged cars with equipment called side booms, vehicles with hoists projecting from their sides that are designed for laying pipe, Rush said.
“These side booms have been retrofitted to lift a couple hundred tons,” said Rush.
R.J. Corman’s job is to move the damaged cars away from the track. BNSF will use the cars that can be re-railed and scrap the others.
“I suspect a number of the cars are so damaged they’ll be cut up for scrap,” said Rush, whose company also is responsible for cleaning up the spilled coal and vacuuming the coal dust.
McBeth said crews were able to re-rail two of the cars, but the rest will be scrapped. She said cleaning up the site will take about two more days and the railroad also is working to get its services back on schedule on the busy line.
“Even with the main line open, it doesn’t mean all of a sudden everything’s on time,” she said.
BNSF is investigating the cause of the derailment and did not release details. McBeth said a report on the accident would be filed with the Federal Railroad Administration by the end of August.
The railroad is not releasing the cost of the accident.
“It’s certainly expensive in terms of clean-up,” McBeth said.
The eastbound train went off the track around 4 p.m. Saturday.
From Ternes’ house and along the road connecting it to 93rd Street coal cars could be seen lying on their side, surrounded by machinery. Heaps of coal were visible farther down the tracks.
Despite the size of the accident, Ternes said he did not notice any out of the ordinary at first.
“It was just another train noise to me,” he said. “I’ve been married 28 years, so I have selective hearing.”