(The Associated Press circulated the following article on January 18.)
MEMPHIS — A Norfolk Southern train derailment dumped tons of coal into an adjacent street and made a mess of train and vehicle traffic but caused no injuries, officials said.
Eleven cars of a 113-car Norfolk Southern train heading from Memphis to Georgia derailed at the intersection of Highland Street and Southern Avenue Sunday morning. Six of the cars overturned, spilling tons of coal into the street and rerouting auto traffic.
The cause was under investigation, Norfolk Southern spokesman Susan Terpay said.
Another unrelated derailment was reported in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin over the weekend.
Bo Turner said he was sleeping on a futon inside his Three Star Muffler and Brakes business when he was jolted from his bed by the Memphis accident. ”It was a tremendous sound,” said Turner. ”I thought it was an earthquake.”
Railroad traffic was delayed on the Memphis track, which Terpay said serves about 20 Norfolk Southern trains a day.
Meanwhile, CSX Railroad was investigating the derailment in Gallatin that sent nine of a train’s 55 cars off the tracks Saturday evening.
The train carrying new vehicles was traveling from Louisville to Atlanta, CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said. Mangled new Chrysler minivans were hanging from one of the rail cars as cleanup continued Sunday.
The wreck displaced one family that lives in a house at the derailment site.
”All of a sudden the house started shaking real bad and the lights started flickering,” said Diane Gray, whose family has temporarily moved into a motel at CSX expense.
”I looked up, and I saw the boxcars coming. They were derailing. I just started screaming for everybody to get out of the house.”
No one was injured. Gray said two of her family’s cars and a boat were smashed in the derailment.