(The Toledo Blade published the following article on March 26.)
FOSTORIA, Ohio — A five-car CSX train derailment yesterday afternoon caused no injuries but fouled up train and street traffic for hours.
Five cars loaded with automobiles jumped the tracks at about 1:45 p.m. while their train, headed to Willard, Ohio, from Walbridge, was passing through a crossover track just west of the Columbus Avenue street crossing, said David Hall, a railroad spokesman.
All five cars remained upright, and none was on any street, but Columbus was blocked until the derailed cars were secured and the head of the train was uncoupled and moved forward.
Several other streets and the intersecting Norfolk Southern rail line were blocked until additional locomotives arrived to disconnect the rear of the train and pull it back out of the center of town.
Fostoria police Capt. Phil Hobbs said by 6 p.m., four of the five cars had been re-railed and crews were working on the fifth car. By that time, he said, all affected streets had reopened.
The train was moving at a slow speed when the cars derailed. The cause remained under investigation.
The biggest impact was on CSX’s rail operations, because both tracks of its busy Willard-Chicago main line were blocked by the accident.
An undetermined number of trains were parked on main lines and in sidings in the region until the tracks reopened.
Gary Sease, another CSX spokesman, said one track was restored by about 8:30 p.m. and that the railroad hoped to reopen the second by midnight.