(The Associated Press circulated the following on May 16.)
TACOMA, Wash. — Two freight trains derailed in western Washington early Wednesday, disrupting Amtrak travel and spilling diesel fuel near a river a few miles upstream from the Nisqually Delta National Wildlife Refuge, officials said.
No injuries were reported, but Mark Davis of Union Pacific said at least two locomotives and an undetermined number of rail cars were off the tracks.
Diesel fuel was leaking from at least one engine near the Nisqually River, said Jenny Sharp, a spokeswoman for the DuPont Fire Department. She said power lines were down and most of the town of DuPont was without electricity.
It wasn’t immediately clear what started the derailments. Sharp and Davis said a southbound train from Seattle to Chicago apparently derailed about 3:15 a.m. and bumped a few cars off the tracks from a northbound train from Portland, Ore., to Seattle.
Both trains were hauling goods in containers that can be loaded readily onto ships and trucks as well as rail cars, Davis said. Another Union Pacific spokesman, James Barnes, said the southbound train had four locomotives and 111 cars and the northbound train had two locomotives and 98 cars.
The trains derailed about halfway between Tacoma and Olympia. Amtrak passengers were being bused between Seattle and Portland because of the blockage, a disruption that was expected to continue into Thursday, according to an Amtrak news release.