(The following article by Mike Goodwin was posted on the Beatrice Daily Sun website on August 23.)
BEATRICE, Neb. — Cleanup and repair were expected to continue Monday after the last four cars of a 110-car BNSF train derailed Saturday afternoon west of the Gage County Industrial Park.
Three of the four cars tipped over in the derailment, which occurred at about 3:10 p.m. Saturday. Steve Forsberg, general director of public affairs for BNSF, said a rerailing crew was to be in Beatrice at 9 a.m. Monday to turn upright the cars that tipped over and remove them from the tracks. He said he wasn’t able to offer a monetary estimate for damage.
“Most of the cost is probably in the cleanup and track repair,” he said.
He said he wasn’t sure exactly how long the cleanup would take or why the derailment occurred.
The 110-car train was en route from Beatrice to Galveston, Texas, carrying a load of corn for export. The corn was removed from the cars and returned to Southeast Nebraska Cooperative Co. in Beatrice, said Monte Johnson, general manager of the company.
“We assisted so the cleanup could be done quickly and repair could be done as soon as possible,” Johnson said.
Forsberg said the derailment was not cleaned up immediately because it did not occur on a primary line.
“The rest of the train was able to continue to destination,” Forsberg said.
BNSF was known as Burlington Northern Santa Fe until a name change in January.