HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -- A train derailment had emergency crews bracing for the worst after 17 CSX cars came off the tracks Sunday morning in Sumner County.
Around 10:00 Sunday night, crews still had about a dozen cars to clean up. CSX crews would work well-into the night to clear the mess.
The derailment looked bad, but if there is a such thing as a good derailment, this was it.
The accident happened on Rockland Road on the edge of the Hendersonville city limits. Luckily, for emergency crews and hazardous materials teams, this CSX train, 91 cars long, was carrying brand new cars, trucks and SUVs instead of hazardous materials.
There were no dangerous chemicals, spills or leakage, but emergency workers were concerned about three nearby metal buildings destroyed Sunday morning when the 17 cars derailed. One of those buildings stores chemicals for the White House Utility district.
Any run-off from that building was quickly contained. CSX now has the grueling process of getting the cars up, piggy backing them on flatbed rail cars, and repairing the track.
Police and emergency crews estimate it will be daybreak Monday before everything is back to normal.
Emergency crews said it will be up to CSX to investigate and pinpoint what caused those cars to jump the tracks.
(The preceding appeared on the Web site www.newschannel5.com on August 17, 2008.)