A quiet Sunday morning (August 2, 2020), like any other day in our small town, around 7 am we heard a load noise like thunder. We were not really for sure what it was. Shortly after there were lots of sirens close to our house. I mean like a ton! I did want to go check it out as someone might have been hurt and did not want to be close or in the way. This is when we found out a train had derailed just 4 blocks from our house!
Very thankful no injuries happened. The conductor was safe as the first few rail cars did not derail. The train was around a mile long heading south out of town. When the derailment happened the conductor mentioned it was like hitting a small animal. He did not feel much. There was a total of 13 train cars (26 containers) which derailed and smashed into one another. The amount of damaged seemed like so much, but the railroad workers said this was a mild case. The force from the containers when coming to a stop so abruptly was amazing to think about. You can tell how powerful it was when you looked at the metal that was ripped open like a potato chip bag. The track was mangled and up in the air. Huge metal bolts where cut in half like a carrot. Springs, bolts, parts of the cars, and products they were hauling was everywhere. The road was tore up and huge holes where made in the ground. By far amazing to look at and see the devastation it caused up close. So glad no one was hurt and no hazardous material was involved.
There is a lot of money to be lost anytime a railroad is down and trains cannot travel through. A lot of items are shipped via railroad everyday! The railroad was quick to get crews in to clean up and fix the track. They had tons of heavy equipment being hauled in by noon!!! They do an amazing job. They came in with a huge crew of workers and worked so well together. It was truly something and very interesting to watch. The railroad workers mentioned how derailments happen way more often then you would think. I had no idea they happen so often! Yes I know they happen and have heard of some; we even had a few close to our area. I did not realize the force, damage, and what all went into fixing it until I seen it first hand just around a mile from my house.
When they all arrived they started right away unloading and going to work. They begin by removing the trees on the east side of the tracks. Once the trees where out of their way they started pulling the train cars and containers off the tracks and into the neighboring field. While the workers where removing the cars; new rock was already being hauled in and unloaded to rebuild the old railroad tracks. They had all this completed around 4 pm and started laying down new track. It was all done so quickly. They continued to work through the rain and night to get the new track all finished and functional again. Just over 24 hours they had everything investigated, removed from the tracks and the new railroad placed for trains to start running again. A train came through a little after 8 am the next day (Monday, August 3, 2020)! That is some amazing teamwork there! It will take them a few days to get all the debris cleaned up and the damaged shipping containers hauled off, but they came in fast and did their jobs well. Great job to everyone. The workers, the railroad personal, the conductor, the first responders, fire department, police, and anyone else who was involved to maintain everyone's safety and get the train tracks up and running again smoothly.
Thank you everyone for their kindness and I am glad I could help out. These photos will go to the firefighters to use in training exercises. My son was with me and got to experience this. He was very fascinated by it all. He now wants to be a heavy machine operator (and I am okay with that). We even got the opportunity to go up in a plane to see the damage from the sky! What a day my son and I had.
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