Recent derailment adds to Amtrak woes
A BNSF Railway train derailment on March 9 about four miles west of Essex added one more incident to a list of delays for freight and passenger trains over the past month.
According to BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas said the 115-car freight train bound for Pasco, Wash., was transporting lumber, paper, plastics and boat products. It left the tracks in an area outside the avalanche-prone John F. Stevens Canyon west of Marias Pass.
The derailment was initially blamed on a rock, mud and snow slide, especially in light of the heavy snow fall in the mountains this winter, but Flathead County Sheriff’s Office personnel surveying the scene from a helicopter found no evidence of a slide.
Two of the cars were loaded with 200 tons of frozen turkeys. After BNSF personnel were warned about hungry grizzly bears awakening in their dens this time of year, railroad officials arranged to have the turkeys dumped in the Flathead County landfill.
Oatmeal in one car spilled into a nearby creek.
“Our cutthroats will have lower cholesterol this spring,” county commissioner Jim Dupont commented.
One of the 19 rail cars caused concerns as it left the tracks and tumbled down a slope, coming to rest near the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. The two cars carrying hazardous materials, however, did not leave the tracks.
Melonas said equipment and personnel were brought to the site from Havre and Billings to assist in efforts to re-open the tracks. Some cars were re-railed and others were pushed to the side. By the end of the week, 10 cars were back on the tracks, and the rest were set aside for scrapping.
The derailment caused one more delay for Amtrak’s Empire Builder, which has seen delays for about a month due to adverse winter weather, other train derailments and a bomb threat.
Strong winds and drifting snow around Feb. 26-27 buried a BNSF train east of Browning, which was waiting for another train to pass. The winds blew a six-foot drift across the train and packed snow between its wheels. BNSF crews used hand shovels and heavy equipment to dig out the train.
Melonas said weather rarely stops the company’s trains, but 60-70 mph winds in the Browning and Glacier National Park area on Feb. 26 proved too much. After the train was dug out, crews had to deal with 15-foot drifts covering the tracks near Browning.
Amtrak canceled all Chicago-bound passenger service from Portland and Seattle and stopped east-bound service in St. Paul, Minn. Some Whitefish-bound passengers found themselves stuck on the Hi-Line looking for alternate transportation in dangerous winter conditions.
Derailments have also been a problem. Amtrak bused passengers about 400 miles from Minot, N.D., to Havre on Feb. 19-20 after a grain train derailed near Williston, N.D. Two other grain trains derailed on Feb. 20 and 22 — one near Belgrade and the other south of the Flathead Tunnel near Whitefish. Seventeen grain cars derailed in the latter incident, blocking the tracks for 24 hours.
Adding to BNSF’s woes, an unruly passenger who made a bomb threat halted an Amtrak train near Browning on Feb. 15. Passengers spent the night in the Browning Middle School while personnel searched the train. No bomb was found.