Western Railroad Discussion > Casselton, ND Train Derailment + Explosion

http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/91956/

Any other details? BNSF?

Looks to be BNSF per this story:




BREAKING NEWS: A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota. It happened at 35th Street and 154th Avenue Southeast just before 2:20 p.m. Monday.

Several area emergency teams are on scene and are setting up an incident command center. A viewer who is about a half mile from the derailment tells Valley News Live she can see large flames.

Several train cars are on fire and huge plumes of black smoke can be seen for miles. Emergency crews are urging people to stay inside and a code red alert has been sent out to residents in a two mile radius of the accident.

The Casselton Fire Department says a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train is involved. An unknown number of cars derailed, but we're told one bulk oil car is on fire and toxic black smoke is being released.

The wind is from the northwest, which means the smoke may miss Casselton but people living to the southeast of town are being told to stay inside. The Casselton Fire Department says there is some concern that the derailment is near an ethanol plant in.

A Valley News Live Crew is on scene. We will bring you more pictures and more information as soon as we get it.


http://www.valleynewslive.com/story/24329396/train-derailment-west-of-casselton

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I agree. Looks like hoppers.. could be a double track & picturing one side? - BNSF has spoken, per this news story:




CASSELTON – The train that derailed about a mile west of town here was eastbound carrying crude oil, according to a BNSF spokeswoman.

Emergency and fire-fighting crews are respond-ing to the derailment, which Amy McBeth, a spokeswoman for BNSF, said occurred at around 2:10 p.m.

McBeth said no crew members on the train were injured during the acci-dent. The train was 106 cars long and headed east-bound, she said.

McBeth said she didn’t know the train’s destination or how many cars derailed.

Sgt. Tara Morris of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said deputies have been dispatched to the accident, but she said at around 2:40 p.m. that they hadn’t arrived yet and so don’t know the severity of the accident.

Thick, black smoke could be seen from around 15 miles outside of town.

City Auditor Sheila Klevgard sent out an email to Casselton residents around 3 p.m., advising residents to stay in their homes as “there is a Haz-mat incident west of town.” She also advised residents to not call 911 or the sheriff’s office for updates.

Eva Fercho, a Casselton homeowner, said she noticed thick, black smoke at about 2 p.m., and that it appears the smoke and possibly the derailment is coming from near an ethanol plant on the west side of town.

“The sky is totally black from smoke,” Fercho said.

She said that she heard two explosions not long after she saw the smoke.

“I could almost feel the house shake in that (second explosion),” Fercho said. “It was loud.”

Check back to Inforum.com for more on this breaking news story.


http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/422351/

So how will this affect the Empire Builder, both east and westbound?
Is there another route that's possible?

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Could more than one train be invloved here? like a rear-ender?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

2 trains, grain train derailed into the other train,

gmojim

Hope the crews are OK... On edit missed the part were they reported the crew is fine Good News.


Looking at bing maps it's double tracks for miles both ways. Comparing the photo looks be at or close to a set crossover.

BNSF answer to what happened and trains involved per their website.

- - - - -
Preliminary Report: Derailment at Casselton, ND

We have a preliminary report that at 02:10 p.m. Central time on December 30, 2013, GRYLRGT926 derailed on Main track 1 and impacted UFYNHAY405, causing it to derail on Main 2 just west of Casselton, North Dakota. Casselton, North Dakota is 25 miles west of Fargo, North Dakota.

At this time we have no estimate when the main tracks will reopen.

BNSF will continue to provide you with additional information as it becomes available. Customers may experience delays of 24 to 48 hours on shipments moving through this corridor.

truxtrax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So how will this affect the Empire Builder, both
> east and westbound?
> Is there another route that's possible?

It won't, outside of whatever they run via Grand Forks around the derailment.

The Wall Street Journal quotes BSSF as:

>>A spokesman for BNSF said, "It's our derailment," and that it involved "a crude oil train" but "we don't have facts beyond that." He said the railroad had employees on their way to the accident. <<

Looking at 24-48 hours blockage, per the article. Subject to the usual caveats and facts to be established

Video. . . .

http://nypost.com/2013/12/30/fiery-train-derailment-in-north-dakota/

Reports suggest that up to 12 crude carrying cars are now on fire

Any idea if this is Bakken crude? Or confirmed from someplace else?

Holy Toledo!!! I hope that no one was hurt!

Anyone have any word on how the crews of the
two trains involved are?

(That sure looked like a BLEVE to me (Boiling Liquid
Expanding Vapor Explosion).)

No injuries or fatalities reported.

Wow quite the impressive bleve!

Dave Toussaint
Riverside, CA
SoCalRailFan.com

SoCalRailFan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow quite the impressive bleve!

Looks like special effects in a movie crash; good thing it wasn't in the middle of town.

The photos posted here seem to lack the streaming fire trail signature to BLEVEs. I am on my windows cell phone and a lot of internet videos are not available to me.


Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Holy Toledo!!! I hope that no one was hurt!
>
> Anyone have any word on how the crews of the
> two trains involved are?
>
> (That sure looked like a BLEVE to me (Boiling
> Liquid
> Expanding Vapor Explosion).)

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The photos posted here seem to lack the streaming
> fire trail signature to BLEVEs. I am on my windows
> cell phone and a lot of internet videos are not
> available to me.


Al, since you have worked in the rail industry I'll ask you a question: is there any possibility that grain dust, inside of a loaded grain hopper car, could have contribute to the fire?? If loaded grain hoppers derailed into loaded crude oil tank cars I would think it wouldn't take much of a spark to ignite the grain dust thus escalating the scope of the fire. Many people don't realize how explosive grain dust is.

TIA


Allen

Could this be the beginning of the end of crude by rail?????