(The following article by Karen Ogden was posted on the Great Falls Tribune website on October 23.)
CUT BANK, Mont. — A Chicago-bound freight train derailed on a railroad trestle just outside Cut Bank early Friday morning, tossing 40 containers alongside the tracks and blocking mainline traffic across the Hi-Line.
No one was injured in the accident, which happened at 1:13 a.m. as the train started to cross the bridge, hauling everything from motorcycle tires to lumber.
The train was moving onto the west end of the trestle when the second and third locomotives derailed, said Gus Melonas, Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman.
Six oversized cars followed, including two that already were on the trestle. The cars carried the equivalent of more than 20 standard flat cars.
The train’s two-person crew was not in either of the derailed locomotives, Melonas said.
Investigators haven’t determined what caused the train, which originated in Tacoma, Wash., to skip the tracks, Melonas said.
Friday’s accident is BNSF’s third derailment in a month in northcentral Montana.
On Tuesday, 25 westbound cars derailed north of Dutton, dumping millions of soybeans along the tracks. On Sept. 27, a grain train derailed, spilling hundreds of tons of wheat south of Shelby.
Melonas said investigators have not yet determined the causes of those derailments either.
“This is a matter of coincidence, and they are nonrelated,” he said.
The train that derailed Friday was traveling less than 30 mph in a 35-mph zone in foggy conditions, Melonas said.
The line normally handles 45 to 50 trains a day.
Freight traffic was rerouted Friday via the Montana Rail Link line through Billings, Missoula and Sand Point, Idaho, Melonas said.
Amtrak passengers were bused around the derailment between Havre and Whitefish on Friday.
Crews from Havre, Shelby and Billings hoped to reopen the line late Friday.
“Over 50 personnel will be working throughout the day and evening,” Melonas said. “Some of the cars will be re-railed and others will be shoved aside.”
The two locomotives were back on the tracks Friday morning, but orange Hyundai containers were still scattered on both sides of the steep banks alongside the tracks.
The double-stacked Hyundai containers toppled off the flatbed railroad cars as they left the tracks. Others stayed upright, balanced precariously on the banks.
Tires and lumber products spilled from two of the containers, Melonas said.
Although the trestle suffered no structural damage, crews replaced 60 ties on the bridge and repaired a damaged section of track.
The mess of toppled containers drew a curious crowd as dawn broke Friday.
“They’re everywhere,” said Marian Czech, who watched cleanup crews and cranes tackle the accident scene from work the nearby Pizza Hut restaurant. “I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen something like that.”