MAYVILLE, N.D. — R.J. Corman’s Emergency Divisions have completed cleanup and recovery from what is being called the single largest derailment in U.S. history, involving 832 empty covered hopper cars stored by BNSF Railway near Mayville in advance of this year’s fall harvest.
The cars were blown over by a June storm including a dericho with winds peaking at 99 mph, as well as a tornado [see “North Dakota storms blamed …,” Trains.com, June 23, 2025].
R.J. Corman said in a press release that its response included 26 people from its Fargo, Wichita, and St. Louis divisions, along with equipment including crawler booms, sidebooms, and track hoes. The company completed recovery, rerail, and truck rebuilds on 412 cars, and supported other restoration activities, coordinating with BNSF to rebuild truck sets to a standard designed to eliminate the need for rework. R.J. Corman’s work was completed July 11.
Mayville, approximately 43 mile southwest of Grand Forks and 58 miles northwest of Fargo, is located at the end of BNSF’s 27-mile Mayville Subdivision branch line, which leaves the main line of the Devils Lake Subdivision at Larimore, N.D.
