Police and rail workers respond to a derailment in the north end of Centralia tonight.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – Police responding about 7:30 tonight to a report of a train derailment in Centralia found what appeared to be about five cars damaged north of the Sixth Street Viaduct.
There were no reports of injuries and officers quickly concluded the freight train cars were not carrying hazardous materials.
“If there’s anything in it, it’s grain and the other one looks empty,” Centralia Police officer Buddy Croy said of the two cars most obviously awry.
One tanker-type car was partially tipped over and and the side of another was torn off, Croy said.
It happened at a switching yard near Kearney Street and Prospect Avenue, adjacent to the main north-south route upon which Amtrak and freight trains travel between Seattle and Portland.
He said he didn’t know what happened, but expected BNSF would be investigating. It appeared one train was moving and the other cars were parked, he said.
Workers at the rail yard were on the scene and said they sometimes get kids coming through and switching lines, Croy said.
Corrie Aker was inside her home next to the tracks watching a movie with her family when she heard the noise. They ran outside to see two cars wobbling over, she said.
“I kept telling the girls, ‘stay back, stay back’, because you don’t know what’s in there,” Aker said.
BNSF spokesperson Gus Melonas said a freight train was pulling onto the mainline when the slow-speed collision occurred. It happened during a routine switching movement, he said.
Melonas expected that line would be reopened by about 10:30 p.m. Rail operations were not significantly affected because traffic was able to continue moving on the second mainline, he said.
BNSF is bringing in equipment from Pasco to either re-rail or remove the damaged cars. Tracks there were damaged, but switching operations are continuing, he said about 10 p.m.
Neighbors Sheila Shiminesky and Jean Heier walked over from B Street to see what caused the rumbling they said just went on and on.
Both women have lived near the tracks for more than four decades and worry some about the potential for spills from the various cargo hauled through the area.
“I’ve always wondered, what if something like this happened and it had poisonous gas or something,” Shiminesky said.
A tanker-type rail car is tipped over north of Centralia
Looking north from the Sixth Street Viaduct in Centralia at the railroad tracks.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter