HOUSTON — Trouble on the tracks means a trip to the body shop for several cars in southeast Houston, according to television station KTRK. A train jumped the tracks near Hobby Airport Wednesday afternoon and went careening into a group of cars. You probably have heard the advice many times not to try to race a train when crossing railroad tracks.
Unfortunately for some vehicle owners, even heeding that advice didn’t save their cars and trucks from damage when the train came to them.
Apparently around 3 p.m. a train at a switching station near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railyard broke through a barricade meant to stop the train. The train pushed several cars into the parking lot of the facility, smashing into several other vehicles.
It turns out that the train that did the damage does not belong to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. We’re told this train may belong to either Union Pacific or the Houston Belt Railway. We still have not been able to find out who owns the train, or least who is responsible for it, and in turn, responsible for the damage.
We do know the clean up is not going to be easy. There is some heavy machinery being trucked in to remove those rail cars from the road and get them back on the tracks. Several bulldozers, large trucks, large cranes and several dozen workers are all on scene trying to get the rail cars back where they belong.
We did speak with officials from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. All they could tell us at this time is that they don’t know who’s responsible for this damage. But they are certainly trying to find out. We do know it will be a lengthy process to clear up the mess. Normally there is a device that would warn the engineer he was nearing the end of the tracks. It’s not known at this time if the device was out of order or if there was some other problem.