TRENTON — The track where a train derailed April 10 has been repaired and is open, but some of the cars involved in the accident remained nearby as of Tuesday.
The damage to those cars still needs to be assessed before they are moved, said Rick Harris, the director of corporate communications for Norfolk Southern.
"The next step in the process is for our people to go in and make some determinations about the disposition of each of the cars," he said. "Eventually, the cars will be moved out of there, and we probably will bring in a crane and some flat cars to move them. That will probably take a few days, but there is no definite timetable. I don't know precisely the number of cars that are there now because some were 're-railed' (put back on the tracks)."
The cause of the derailment, which happened at night, was a large tree that had fallen onto the track, he said.
"There had been a storm in the area in the previous few hours," Harris said. "The train came around a curve in the track, and the engineer saw a very large tree on it. The train struck the tree. I think there were a total of 80 cars on the train, and the 36 cars at the head of the train and the two locomotives that powered the train derailed."
Norfolk Southern officials acted quickly to determine a course of action.
"On Saturday (April 11), we went about the business of pretty much clearing all the derailed cars from the track," Harris said. "We got the last car shoved out of the way about midnight."
In addition, approximately 1,300 feet of the track's roadbed was damaged and had to be repaired.
"We reopened the track between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday (April 12), and the first train was scheduled to run over it about 7 p.m.," Harris said.
"Twenty-five to 30 people" were evacuated from their homes as a precaution after the derailment, Harris said.
"The evacuation was lifted within a few hours except for the people who lived in three or four homes that were in the immediate vicinity of the derailment site," he said. "The evacuation for them was lifted at 6 p.m. on Sunday."
Nobody was injured when the train derailed.
"There were some tank cars loaded with chemicals on the train, but there was no spillage of dangerous chemicals whatsoever," Harris said. "We did have some cars that spilled an undetermined amount of kaolin, which is a nonhazardous material that is basically clay; and an undetermined amount of ammonium nitrate, which is basically fertilizer, also was spilled. It all was contained at the scene and posed no threat of harm to anyone."