#BREAKING NEWS: Heavy floodwaters wash out railroad bridge in Mammoth Spring, Ark.
DETAILS: https://t.co/GgGQgCbem5 pic.twitter.com/ngckFQeuxR
— KY3 News (@kytv) April 5, 2025
MAMMOTH SPRING STATE PARK, Ark. — A stationary BNSF train was derailed early today (April 5, 2025) when floodwaters washed out a bridge underneath part of the train, KYTV/KSPR-TV reports.
Elsewhere in the state, 15 to 20 cars of an intermodal train were blown over by high winds, KAIT-TV reports, and BNSF has informed customers of multiple closures on its Heartland Division because of high water and flooding.
The washout occurred in northern Arkansas, near the Missouri state line. KYTV/KSPR report the train was stopped because of weather warnings when the bridge across the Spring River washed out, derailing several coal hoppers. No injuries were reported. The railroad is working with Mammoth Spring State Park to clear the derailment and repair the bridge.
The incident occurred about 1:30 a.m., according to a BNSF advisory to customers. The railroad does not yet have an estimate when service will be restored.
The derailment site is on BNSF’s Thayer South Subdivision, about 2.3 miles south of Thayer, Mo.
The second incident was also on the Thayer South Sub, about 120 miles southeast of the first incident and 25 miles northwest of Memphis, Tenn. Poinsett County Chief Deputy Ryan Price told KAIT that the empty cars involved were blown into a farmer’s field east of Interstate 555, which parallels the rail line. No injuries were reported. A BNSF spokeswoman said that incident occurred between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., but that the railroad was still trying to confirm other details.
The Thayer South is one of three subdivisions where operations have been halted because of weather-related events, BNSF said in a Saturday evening customer advisory. Others are the River Subdivision between Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and River Junction, Mo., and the Thayer North Subdivision between West Plains, Mo., and Thayer, Mo. The railroad has not estimated when those lines may reopen.
— Updated at 7:35 p.m. CT with second derailment; updated April 6 at 7:41 a.m. with BNSF response on second incident, and at 8 a.m. with other weather-related service interruptions.
I have to go with Chris B. Thirty + years of railroading we called the incident what it was. A bridge washed out at MP —. Train MCBPR — was parked on it. Cars in the river. No injuries. Hulcher notified and enroute.
Or as Amtrak says, wheels lost contact with the rails.
Looks like empty hoppers. Too bad they weren’t loaded, because they might have held the bridge into place.
I’m not sure a stationary train ending up in the water when a bridge is washed out under it should be referred to as a derailment. I thought that was when moving equipment was involved. It is a weather related incident.
What should it be called? An unrailment?
It’s called a bridge collapse.
The act of “derail” is a verb, it means to remove something from its intended purpose either by accident or intentionally.
By the washing out of the bridge, the act of derailment indeed took place since the cars were removed from the track.
In brief, “Northeast Arkansas experiences 2 train derailments due to storms.”
Dr. Güntürk Üstün