(The following article by Paul Craig was posted on the News Review website on June 5.)
OAKLAND, Ore. — A train derailed just before midnight Sunday spilling 16 full log cars next to Highway 99.
The derailment did not affect motorists. It happened underneath the Oakland Bridge, which leads to the Interstate 5 onramp.
The cause of the derailment is currently unknown, according to Douglas Bratton, chief mechanical officer for Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad. Six empty train cars also derailed.
There was no damage to the city’s water treatment plant, which is just south of where the derailment occurred.
Empty rail cars were parked on an adjacent track and prevented the derailed train from damaging the plant’s pump station.
“It saved our electrical down there,” said Valerie Magnus, an Oakland public works employee. “It saved everything.”
Cranes worked to clean up the wreckage today, stacking logs on semitrucks.
Flaggers were in place to direct the semis, but no delays are expected for road traffic.
Rail traffic might be temporarily slowed, however.
“We’re hoping no more than a couple of days,” Bratton said of the cleanup efforts.
The derailment could slow the shipment of logs and wood products in and out of the county. Many local lumber mills import logs from other areas and ship their products out by rail.
If the rail line reopens in just a few days, the derailment may only be an inconvenience, said Paul Beck, timber manager for Herbert Lumber Co. of Riddle. If it takes longer, supplies will dry up.
“We’re going out a long ways to buy that wood,” he said, noting much of the wood is being shipped from Washington state.