Train derailment in Crenshaw spills carloads of soybeans

Published 5:35 pm Monday, November 14, 2016

Assessing the aftermath of an 18-railcar derailment last Friday in Crenshaw are (from left) Terry Bryant of Panola County Emergency Operations, State Trooper Shane Phelps, an unidentified railway official, and State Trooper Troy Moses. See story, page A2. The Panolian photo by John Howell

Assessing the aftermath of an 18-railcar derailment last Friday in Crenshaw are (from left) Terry Bryant of Panola County Emergency Operations, State Trooper Shane Phelps, an unidentified railway official, and State Trooper Troy Moses. See story, page A2.
The Panolian photo by John Howell

Train derailment in Crenshaw spills carloads of soybeans

By John Howell
Through rail traffic resumed before midnight Thursday following a spectacular pileup of grain cars in Crenshaw before 6 a.m. that morning.
Crenshaw Police Chief Adrian Kirkwood said that he heard derailment’s cacophony about 5:42 a.m., triggering the burglar alarm, he quickly determined, at the town’s Dollar General Store.
Eighteen cars, all carrying soybeans from the Midwest bound for the Port of New Orleans, spilled their cargo as they folded back-to-front just north of the Missouri Avenue rail crossing at its intersection with Highway 3.
Authorities, who responded in considerable numbers from Panola and Quitman counties as well as from various state and federal agencies, quickly determined that nothing toxic was released from the derailment, nor was anyone injured.
Then it was left to CN Railroad, which owns the heavily-used rail corridor between Memphis and Jackson, to get the line open again. By mid-morning Thursday, heavy machinery from R. J. Corman Railroad Services was rolling in. By noon, sections of rail already attached to crossties began arriving on flatbed trailers.
Amtrak passengers on the City of New Orleans were bussed between Jackson and Memphis while repairs were underway.
Rail workers initially told bystanders that a wheel had broken on one of the cars, causing it to drag, damaging track, but CN public affairs spokeman Patrick Waldron said the cause has not been determined.

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