(The Aberdeen American News posted the following Associated Press article on its website on February 9.)
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Police are searching for a vandal or vandals who unhooked 36 cement-laden train cars and let them go into a Rapid City street.
The runaway train ripped up the pavement and derailed four cars on Friday morning. Two of them nearly overturned. No one was hurt.
La Crosse Street in Rapid City was closed all afternoon as Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad workers worked to move the cars.
Capt. Chris Grant of the Rapid City Police Department doesn’t think the incident was a childish prank. Someone who knows how train cars are connected and secured apparently was involved, he said.
“So obviously we’re looking for someone who has had experience with trains, perhaps someone who is disgruntled for some reason,” Grant said. “It may have been a random act of destruction, or it may have some purposeful attempt. We hope the investigation reveals the true motive.”
The section of state-owned track was once part of the Milwaukee Road’s main line through Rapid City. It has not been used for regular train traffic in decades.
Corby Meyer, manager of train operations for DM&E, said a string of 51 cars had been parked on the track for about a week. He said someone apparently unhooked 36 cars from the string, letting them roll away to the east.
The railroad has been working with police to keep transients away from train property in the past, said Meyer. Two weeks ago, a group of people lit a large campfire in a boxcar, causing some damage to the car before the Rapid City Fire Department could put it out.