SANTA FE — Rail cars that left the tracks near Santa Fe were up righted and lined up in a quickly made field Sunday morning as crews cleaned up and investigators tried to determine what caused a train carrying small amounts of toxic chemicals to derail on Saturday.
Santa Fe Fire and Rescue Chief Tommy Anderson said state Highway 6 reopened about 2:45 a.m. Sunday after being closed for about 10 hours after 12 Union Pacific railcars left the tracks. The derailment happened at a switching station where Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad tracks merge.
People evacuated from theirs homes were also allowed to return, Anderson said.
While most of the compressed gas tanker cars were classified as empty, two of the derailed cars contained residual amounts of hydrogen fluoride, a chemical that had it leaked and come in contact with water, would have instantly converted into highly toxic hydrofluoric acid. None of the railcars carrying chemicals leaked, Anderson said.
The railroad company will bring in trucks to offload any remaining chemicals in the cars before they are loaded onto flatbeds to be taken back to the rail yard for repairs or are dissembled.
Crews from Union Pacific and BNSF were working to repair the quarter of a mile-damaged portion of the track where the derailment happened. The rail line that runs parallel to state Highway 6 is the major artery for rail traffic between the industrial facilities in Freeport, Angleton and Chocolate Bayou and rail yards in Houston.
It is also a line that carries trains between Houston and Galveston.
Anderson said rail officials told him that about $1 million a day is lost while the line is out of commission.
Meanwhile, rail company investigators along with state officials were investigating what caused the derailment. The train was traveling at about 30 mph when the derailment happened, so it is not likely speed was a factor.
Investigators will be looking into the track’s condition as a possible factor. While railroad company officials would not speculate as to what caused the accident, emergency officials on scene said that railroad crews had been working earlier in the day Saturday on the “frog” of the tracks.
The frog is the crossing point of two rails and is part of the switching from one line to another. It is often a triangle-shaped piece of metal that is critical in the switching process of a line.
The frog is also considered the weakest area of a line because a train’s wheels are not supported for a short distance as it switches from one track to another.
It is called a frog because it resembles the v-shaped frog on a horse’s hoof.
