Derailments halt train traffic
<p>BNSF crews work on a locomotive that derailed early Friday morning near West Glacier. No fuel or products spilled from the cars during the derailment, according to BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas.</p>
The main rail route across northern Montana was closed Friday after two freight trains derailed — one near West Glacier and one near Cut Bank.
No one was injured and no freight spilled, BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas said.
All of the cars and locomotives in both derailments remained upright, with no fuel spillage and no product spillage from the cars.
Melonas said a train hauling general merchandise from Seattle pulled off onto a siding near West Glacier at about 2:45 a.m. when the four locomotives and a car hauling three containers derailed.
The cars have been rerailed and pulled to Whitefish while work continues to rerail the locomotives there with the use of cranes, bulldozers and front-end loaders.
More than 35 personnel were on site Friday afternoon, and the line was expected to be open as early as 1 a.m. today, Melonas told the Inter Lake.
In the meantime, some freight traffic was being re-routed via Montana Rail Link’s southern route through the state.
At 6:15 a.m. on the other side of the Continental Divide, the lead locomotive on another train hauling general freight from Pasco, Wash., to Minot, N.D., derailed as the train pulled onto a side track 10 miles west of Cut Bank.
The locomotive was rerailed in about two hours.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, the tracks had been repaired and that portion of the rail line was back in normal service.
Melonas said there was no cause determined yet in the two derailments, but that BNSF had determined they were not connected.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Amtrak was busing passengers between Whitefish and Shelby while the line was closed.