(The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette posted the following article by Laura Johnston on its website on February 3.)
CORUNNA, Ind. — A freight train derailed Sunday morning in Corunna, overturning 26 cars and spilling slabs of steel onto snowy embankments.
No one was injured, and no hazardous materials were spilled, said Jay Oberholtzer, chief deputy of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.
A 100-car train headed from Burns Harbor to Detroit derailed about 7:45 a.m. Sunday, Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said. The cause is under investigation.
But Oberholtzer said distortion or cracking in the tracks, brought on by cold weather, might have caused the cars to jump the tracks. DeKalb sheriff’s deputy Brian Springer said it appeared that the open-top cars that derailed were immediately behind the train’s two engines.
The cars flipped, losing their materials and landing sideways across both tracks, said Springer, who was the second deputy on the scene, which he called “a big mess.”
On Monday, the wreckage lay directly beneath the Indiana 327 bridge in Corunna, as Norfolk Southern railroad crews hunched over piles of rocks and metal rods to repair the line. Trains rolled slowly on the northern, westbound tracks, past the contorted, overturned cars and the railroad ties strewn in the snow.
The westbound tracks were reopened about 2 a.m. Monday, Husband said, and he expected the eastbound line to open late Monday.
“The priority is to get the track back in service,” Husband said. “Once the track is in service we’ll get to the cleanup of the area, which includes all the damaged cars and the steel.”
Husband did not know how many cars were salvageable, nor did he estimate the total damage.
The damage was mainly limited to Norfolk Southern property, Springer said.
Since the train derailed in a gully beneath the bridge, the train cars remained in the railroad’s right-of-way.
“Luckily it was in a low area, kept the cars from going out on to the street and hitting some houses,” Springer said.
One resident’s truck was damaged when a rail car hit a tree, which broke the truck’s windshield and hit a side mirror, Springer said. Power was out in Corunna for several hours.
But after checking the scene, the Corunna fire department left the railroad crews to clean up.
“It’s been a tourist attraction,” Corunna Fire Chief Dennis Treesh said.
It was the second Norfolk Southern derailment in the past two months. In December, a freight train overturned in Kendallville, closing three intersections in the town’s center for four hours.