Train derails on border of Glacier National Park, spilling thousands of bushels of grain

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Several BNSF Railway train cars carrying grain derailed on the border of Glacier National Park about two miles east of the Goat Lick Saturday.

Crews were working to right the cars, and trucks equipped with huge vacuum pumps were waiting to start cleaning up thousands of bushels of grain that spilled out of the cars and down the embankment.

The railroad wouldn’t say what grain it was, though it looked like corn.

Two cars initially went down the steep bank from the tracks. One rested about 150 feet from U.S. Highway 2. The other about 50 feet or so upslope. All told, 12 cars derailed, the company said. There were no injuries.

The train derailed at 5:42 a.m. and the line has since reopened.

Grain spills are particularly problematic because if they’re not cleaned up quickly, they start to attract bears and other wildlife. 

Traffic on Highway 2 was initially reduced to one lane, though delays didn’t last long, about 10 minutes or so.

The last major derailment between West Glacier and Marias Pass was in 2013, when four locomotives tipped over near West Glacier. The last major car derailment was in 2011, when cars tipped over near Essex and spilled thousands of frozen turkeys and chickens in January.

But corn spills have a history of being problematic on the tracks along Glacier. The railroad has greatly improved its cleanup response, however, with vacuum trucks that suck up the grain out of the tracks and surrounding landscape. The company is also working with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on bear mitigation.

This story was updated on Oct. 15.

    A spilled car ended up not far from U.S. Highway 2.
  

    A worker looks over the wreckage.