(The Bismarck Tribune post the following Associated Press article on its website on August 14.)
MAPLETON, N.D. — It will take another two weeks to clean up wreckage from a coal train derailment here, officials say.
Thirty-nine cars of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train went off the tracks Aug. 5. The main line was repaired and reopened the next day.
BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said Wednesday that contractors were removing hundreds of tons of coal that spilled and cutting up rail cars to be sold as salvage.
Officials had not yet determined what caused the derailment, and the railroad did not yet have a damage estimate.
No one was hurt in the incident, which was the third BNSF coal train derailment in North Dakota this year. In March, 19 cars of a coal train derailed and spilled on the outskirts of Richardton, about 90 miles west of Bismarck. In July, 36 cars went off the tracks near the state prison in Bismarck.
Mapleton is about 10 miles west of Fargo.