Service restored after BNSF derailment

Correction: The story originally said the derailment was west of Glasgow. It was 25 miles east of Glasgow.

No one was injured when a large derailment 25 miles east of Glasgow on Saturday night obstructed rail traffic until 9:25 p.m. on Sunday.

According to Gus Melonas, public affairs director for Burlinton Northern Santa Fe Railways, a four-locomotive and 70-car train on the single mainline track from Seattle, Montana's busiest with more than 30 trains a day, went off the rails near Kintyre, leaving 11 segmented rail cars and one single rail car in various states of disarray.

Glasgow Courier/Samar Fay

Damaged rail car wheels are lined up beside the Hi-Line, where Burlington Northern Santa Fe personnel with heavy equipment worked Monday morning, continuing to remove overturned cars and debris from Saturday night's freight train derailment three miles west of Frazer. The Hi-Line was closed for nearly a full day.

Those 12 segments, Melonas said, hold about the same capacity as 40 standard rail car units.

Melonas said some cars were upside-down, on their side, or blown open, spreading everything from food items to footwear around the scene.

Some diesel fuel did leak out, Melonas said, but it was contained and removed by staff quickly, leaving no public threat.

About 40 people worked throughout Saturday night and all day Sunday to push the cars out and clear the area with any large machinery they could use.

Despite about an inch-and-a-half of snow, Melonas said the weather did not impede the clean-up effort.

Since the line was out, some trains were detoured through the Southern Montana Rail Link.

While an investigation is ongoing about the cause of the accident, traffic resumed, if a bit cautiously, as of Sunday night.