LEXINGTON, Neb. — Crews were still cleaning up Thursday after two railroad accidents at a grain elevator on Christmas Eve, the Associated Press reported.
The first accident happened at 5 a.m. Wednesday as DeBruce grain employees used a company locomotive to connect 90 cars, then switched the empty train onto a wrong sidetrack, where it hit two parked cars as it moved slowly along, knocking them off the rails.
Using other tracks, elevator workers moved the cars around the wreckage and pulled the train to the unloading spout, where it was filled.
When the loaded train pulled out about 4 p.m. toward its destination of Kaiser, Calif., it hit another snag.
A mile from the elevator, as the train reached the junction of the siding and mainline, four cars derailed and spilled their contents.
Investigators were still trying to determine what caused that wreck.
Nearly half the contents of the four loaded cars spilled, or nearly 7,800 bushels of corn, officials said.