Train Derailment in Gurley Produces delays, but no injuries

An early-morning derailment on the BNSF line at Gurley caused some disruptions in traffic Tuesday morning, April 2. No injuries were reported, however the intersection of 1st Street and Highway 385 was damaged, requiring motorists to find alternate routes to cross over Hwy 385 while traveling through the area.

Kendall Sloan, BNSF Spokeswoman, said that at approximately 3:24 a.m, two rail cars derailed between Dalton and Huntsman. No injuries to the crews were reported, and as of Tuesday afternoon crews were still working to clear the incident.

According to local residents at the scene, apparently a wheel on one of the coal cars locked up while approaching Gurley from the north. For a few miles, the train continued southbound before it the locked wheel was discovered and was overheating. The train was stopped coming into Gurley, and that's where two coal car carriers tipped over near the intersection of Hwy 385 and 1st Street. Cleanup crews were immediately dispatched to scene to remove debris from the roadway and to tip the cars back up to repair, and clear them from, the tracks. There was a slight delay with traffic in the early morning, but it appeared that most of the disruption was cleared by the mid-afternoon.