GEORGETOWN — Repairs to more than 300 feet of damaged railroad track, which led to a train derailment in Georgetown last week, were completed late Tuesday afternoon, Norfolk Southern Corp. officials said.
Gannett News Service reports that crews continued their work to lay new track where four rail cars filled with corn derailed Friday afternoon. Little corn spilled, and no one was injured.
The mishap occurred about 2:30 p.m. Friday, when a train hauling corn was attempting to drop off more than a dozen rail cars at a junction. The corn was bound for Gravel Hill, east of Georgetown, where it was to be unloaded for Mountaire Farms, said Joseph C. Morris Sr., the company’s trainmaster in Harrington.
As the train moved along the tracks off South Railroad Avenue, four of the cars slipped off. Heavy equipment was brought in over the weekend to lift the cars back onto the tracks. Two of the rail cars have since been hauled away, and the corn delivered.
Morris said last week’s weather — particularly the unseasonably cold temperatures — caused the steel rails to snap.
Morris said extreme temperature changes between day and night cause rail snapping in the winter. In the summer, extreme heat can cause the rails to buckle.
The age of the rails also contributed to the derailment, he said. The section of track where the accident happened is at least 60 years old, though Morris said he believes it is closer to 80 to 100 years old.
Mountaire Farms President David Pogge said the delayed shipment of the two remaining rail cars shouldn’t cause any problems.
“We’ve got corn coming in from all over the place,” Pogge said. “We should be fine.”
Lee Sproull, a grain merchandiser for Mountaire, said each rail car holds about 200,000 pounds of corn. Sproull said the company has enough of a stockpiled supply of corn that a few days of lost rail service won’t have any effect on operations.
Morris said repairs to the 300 feet of track, plus work on another 200 feet leading up to the damaged area, will cost less than $10,000.