March 7, 2010 in Region

Mainline to reopen after Columbia Basin derailment

Associated Press
 

WILSON CREEK, Wash. (AP) — Burlington Northern Santa Fe workers plan to have the railroad’s mainline track reopened Sunday evening after 24 cars from a train carrying corn derailed in Eastern Washington.

No one was hurt when the 110-car train traveling from Florence, Minn., to Seattle derailed Saturday morning near Wilson Creek, about 18 miles north of Moses Lake. However, it blocked the single track, used by about 20 freight and Amtrak trains daily.

Railroad spokesman Gus Melonas says crews are working on the damaged track and expect to have it open by 5 p.m. He says one of the derailed cars has been put back on the track and the rest pushed aside to be scrapped. The spilled corn is being taken to a nearby grain elevator.

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