(The following report appeared on the Albany Democrat-Herald website on August 2.)
ALBANY, Ore. — Nine cars of a Portland & Western freight train went off the tracks in Albany Sunday, disrupting traffic on the Union Pacific’s main line.
The accident happened about 2:30 p.m. Nobody was hurt, but a section of the track was torn up.
Amtrak passenger trains and Union Pacific freights were routed through the Albany yard of the Portland & Western to get around the damaged section of the main line.
Larry Phipps, president of the Portland & Western, said from Salem this morning that the accident happened when the 83-car train was coming off the Toledo Branch and entering the main line at about Sixth Avenue. It was traveling eight to 10 miles an hour.
One pair of wheels on a car loaded with newsprint derailed in the curve where it went on to the main line. That tore up the tracks, and the eight following cars were derailed as well.
Five of the nine derailed cars were loaded with newsprint, the other four with coiled wire.
The cars were part of the daily train the P&W assembles at Asher near Corvallis. It combines loads from Newberg, McMinnville, Willamina and Toledo. The train was headed for Eugene; the cars were destined for California.
The first car to leave the rails was the 39th behind the engine. There were 36 other cars behind the nine that derailed.
Service on the main line was expected to be disrupted until this afternoon.
Contractors hired by the Union Pacific were working to restore the tracks today.
Phipps said the railroad would look at the geometry of the curve, including the banking, as a possible contributing factor in the accident.
Asked for an estimate, Phipps put the cost of such a derailment at roughly $200,000.
The Portland & Western also is known as the Willamette & Pacific, but in recent years it has gone solely by Portland & Western name.