(The Norman Transcript posted the following article by Brian Sargent to its website on October 1.)
NORMAN, Okla. — A southbound freight train carrying 108 railcars of grain derailed shortly after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday immediately north of Rock Creek Road.
Thirty-two Burlington Northern Santa Fe railcars left the track, according to Joe Faust, a spokesman for the railroad.
Wheat spilled out of some of the cars. Several wood railroad ties were snapped and hundreds of feet of track was damaged. Officials said the train was not carrying any hazardous materials.
“This being a grain train, we’re lucky there. If there’s any good news in it, it’s there’s no hazardous stuff in the train,” said the train’s engineer George Blatchford, a 38-year railroad employee.
Neither the train’s conductor, Howard Goatley, nor Blatchford was injured.
“We were going along just like always and we felt the thing go in emergency, which means it automatically applies all the brakes,” Blatchford said. “I knew that we either had a broke air hose or a derailment or something.
“We looked back and saw all the dust flying so we knew then that (the train) was probably going in a ditch.”
Several employees at Dolese Brothers Co. witnessed the accident, which happened approximately 20 to 30 feet east of the concrete mixing business.
“A guy said the train was slowing down …. I looked and all of them kinda went up like this,” said Richard Reeves making an upside-down v-shape with his hands. “Basically all I saw was a big dust cloud. It happened pretty quick.”
Dewayne Sterling said the train began stacking up like dominoes, which cause a smokelike effect. That turned out to be dust coming off the wheat, he said.
Reeves said about a minute and a half elapsed from the time he began watching the derailment to when the train stopped. It wasn’t until then that grain began to pour out of the railcars, he said.
“The first thing we thought was to look for people. We just wanted to make sure no one was hurt,” said Reeves.
“We’re very lucky that we have this bank here,” said Reeves pointing to a 10-foot-deep embankment on the east side of Dolese Brothers Co.
Faust said the tracks should be cleared by 10 a.m. today. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, he said.
Three locomotive engines pulling the cars did not derail.
The train was en route to Galveston, Texas, from Hutchinson, Kan.
Rock Creek Road between 12th Avenue Northwest and U.S. 77 (Flood Avenue) should be re-opened at 10 a.m. today, said Lt. Tom Easley of the Norman Police Department.
On an average day about 36 trains travel along this section of the railway.