Wreckage Blocks Main Rail Line

Mon., Aug. 31, 1998

From Staff

The main rail line between Seattle and Chicago remained blocked Sunday by wreckage of a freight train that derailed at the southern edge of Glacier National Park on Saturday night.

Amtrak was busing passengers between Shelby, 65 miles east of the park, and Spokane, said Mark Magliari, Amtrak spokesman in Chicago.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe, however, rerouted its freight trains through central Montana on Montana Rail Link lines, said Gus Melonas, BNSF spokesman in Seattle.

Melonas said the main line might be cleared late Sunday night, but it would take approximately 24 hours to resume normal traffic patterns.

The westbound freight train originated in Havre, east of Glacier National Park, and was hauling 82 cars of wheat and barley to Portland and Sunnyside, Wash., Melonas said. Twenty-seven cars derailed about 6:15 p.m. MDT Saturday just west of Marias Pass.

The cause of the derailment was still under investigation, and it was too early to make any dollar estimate of the damage, he said.

No one was injured, Melonas said.

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Wreckage Blocks Main Rail Line

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