High winds and a tornado are blamed for a pair of derailment in North Dakota on Friday and Saturday.
Thirty cars of a CPKC train were derailed on Friday, June 20, about three miles southeast of Enderlin, where a tornado killed three people. The Fargo Forum newspaper reports the storm was so destructive that authorities could not determine if the three victims were in their homes at the time the tornado struck. The storm left about 37,000 people without power; as of Sunday, 10,000 had not yet had electricity restored.
Enderlin is crew change point for CPKC, where its Carrington and Elbow Lake subdivisions meet. It is also about 40 miles southwest of Fargo, N.D.
Early Saturday, a large number of stored BNSF grain cars were blown off the tracks near Mayfield, N.D. WDAY Radio reports the incident occurred about 5 a.m.; a BNSF spokeswoman said the incident had no impact on mainline operations.
Mayville is at the end of a 30-mile branch line off BNSF’s Devils Lake Subdivision. It is approximately 30 miles south-southwest of Grand Forks, N.D. and 50 miles north-northwest of Fargo.
I guess TRAINS referred to Mayville as Mayfield in honor of the devastating 2021 tornado that destroyed much of Mayfield, Kentucky?
Also, in keeping with TRAINS’ policy of reporting on the article rather than reporting on the content of the article, it suggests that service to Mayville might be affected. This is not the case. The cars were actually located on a spur to Portland.
Portland is 2 miles west of Mayville. At one time, Great Northern had north/south routes through both Mayville and Portland. The two routes joined 5 miles north of both communities at Portland Jct. Today, the track is abandoned south of both communities.
Mayville still has active BNSF customers, including a shuttle grain train facility. No active customers in Portland, so the segment between Portland Jct. and Portland was being used for car storage.
All things considered, there seem to be more train events with tornadoes. Is it because they are longer, so the odds increase? There are more cars in storage, so again the odds increase.
When a consist is 3 miles long instead of 1 mile, does that increase the factor of a weather event 300%.
I checked, no more tornadoes in the area than usual this time of year, so that can only mean more train cars are in the way.