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June 11, 2008

Train derails near Ames

Staff Reports

AMES — Farmrail workers Tuesday were surveying damage caused after a train with at least 10 cars derailed Monday evening southwest of Ames.

The Farmrail train, which runs from Enid to Southard and back, derailed as it attempted to cross tracks that had been washed out by a rain-swollen creek.

No injuries were reported, according to crews on scene Tuesday afternoon. They said the train had derailed about 6 p.m. Monday.

Three engines lay across what was left of the railway bed. Tracks curved off the bed toward a creek that runs near the tracks, with stretches of track suspended in the air above what was the railbed.

There was no word on how long repair operations would take.

Rodney Roof, manager of business development for Farmrail at its headquarters in Clinton, said the train runs five days a week, Monday through Friday, and usually carries gypsum products and wheat, among other cargo. U.S. Gypsum is located in Southard. The train usually is manned by a crew of two, he said.

The train actually is part of Grainbelt Corp., Roof said, a sister company to Farmrail, although “everyone knows it as Farmrail.” Grainbelt was formed in 1987 to buy 176 miles of track linking Enid to Frederick.

The train that derailed also passes through Ames and Okeene.



Staff writer Cass Rains and Associate Editor Kevin Hassler contributed to this story.

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