(The following story by Joel Banner Baird appeared on the News Leader website on March 22.)
COLD SPRINGS, Va. — Five empty rail cars derailed early Tuesday afternoon, halting the progress of a northbound Norfolk Southern freight train and blocking traffic on Greenville School Road near Va. 608.
Police reported no injuries or adjacent property damage along Pine Run.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said the cause of the wreck was under investigation.
The mishap, which occurred at 1:15 p.m., splintered stretches of wooden ties and littered the area with couplings and coiled suspension springs. The forward-most of the derailed gondola, or open freight cars had been stripped of its wheel trucks and lay flat on the track.
Crews uncoupled the damaged gondola cars and mobilized rail-mounted cranes to clear the track late Tuesday afternoon, Chapman said.
Darlene Simmons, whose house sits about 50 feet from the rail line, said that she had been asleep after a third shift when the train derailed.
“My dog’s barking woke me up,” she said. “I usually sleep right through the trains.”
Chapman said that the length of the 99-car train, including its three locomotives, exceeded one mile.