(The Associated Press circulated the following story on October 8.)
PERHAM, Minn. — A train car left the tracks and demolished a warehouse, idling a candy company during its busiest time of the year.
No one was hurt in Tuesday’s accident. But chocolate maker Nelson Confections had to shut down its production line and company officials didn’t know when it may start up again, said Mark Kalan, co-owner of the business.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Kalan said. “We do about 80 percent of our business in the fourth quarter.”
The plant employs 20 people and about half of them are full-time workers, Kalan said. A visibly shaken Kalan said he was grateful they escaped harm. “Thank God for that. Thank God,” he said.
The empty car that left the rails was number 23 in a 53-car, two-locomotive train carrying general merchandise, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. The train was heading for the Twin Cities from Dilworth.
The railroad was investigating the cause of the derailment, Melonas said. A large chunk of steel, part of a coupling mechanism, was left sitting in a downtown street after it bounced off the hood of a car. Melonas said it was too early to speculate whether the part played a role in the derailment.
The car left the tracks about two blocks from where it came to rest in the warehouse, said Bob Louiseau, city manager in this town about 60 miles southeast of Moorhead.
Randy Johnson, a cook at The Station House Restaurant, witnessed the derailment while taking out the garbage around 8:45 a.m. The train car kicked up a huge cloud of dust and then took a bouncing course toward the warehouse, using the zone of rocks lining the tracks as a bumpy highway.
“That sucker was just going up and down,” Johnson said. “My mind was telling me this can’t be happening.”
When the car hit the warehouses, it severed a natural gas line. Dozens of people were evacuated from City Hall and nearby businesses. Streets were closed off but opened again quickly after city workers shut off the gas, Louiseau said.
The city will do what it can to help Nelson Confections get back on its feet, Louiseau said. That may include providing financing to help the business relocate within Perham, he said.