(The following story appeared on the Billings Gazette website on July 6.)
HELENA, Mont. — Crews on Saturday cleaned up after fierce winds blamed for a train derailment near Havre and interruption of electrical service to 5,000 NorthWestern Energy customers across northern Montana.
The railroad tracks 21 miles west of Havre reopened Saturday morning about 14 hours after a derailment that scattered cookies, tissue and other nonhazardous freight, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. No one was injured in the derailment Friday night, and the tracks were fixed in time to avoid disrupting the Amtrak passenger train that uses them, Melonas said.
Some empty containers on flat cars apparently caught the wind, which topped 50 mph, and the force led to the derailment, he said. It involved segmented flatcars equal to about 25 standard rail cars, according to Melonas.
The train with four locomotives and 59 cars was going from Portland, Ore., to Chicago. Given the wind, the train had slowed to 49 mph in an area with a speed limit of 60 mph, Melonas said.