Repost from The Bismarck Tribune
[Editor: Note that this derailment took place near an ethanol plant!  According to one report, “The cars hit some propane tanks on the property, which is owned by BNSF, but there were no leaks or explosions.”  UPDATE, photos and video,Valley News Live, Fargo: Broken Rail Caused Trains to Derail.  – RS]

Two trains involved in derailment near Casselton, North Dakota

2014-11-14, By Adrian Glass-Moore, Forum News Service

CASSELTON, N.D. – For the second time in under a year, two BNSF Railway trains have derailed just west of Casselton.

“Welcome to Casselton, again,” is how Casselton Fire Chief Tim McLean greeted reporters at a news conference following Thursday night’s incident.

No one was injured when 12 or 13 empty crude oil cars from a westbound train and an unknown number of cars from an eastbound train carrying lumber derailed, McLean said.

“We dodged a bullet again,” said Casselton Mayor Lee Anderson, recalling the fiery explosion last December when a BNSF train carrying oil derailed west of here.

The mayor said he felt “disappointment” overall at Thursday’s incident, but was “pleased that it happened out of town and didn’t cause any serious problems like it did last time.”

Authorities found no hazardous materials or leaking tanker cars Thursday, McLean said. Lumber was scattered in the area, he said.

“There was severe track damage,” McLean said. “I’m sure they’ll be replacing the rails on both tracks.”

Authorities don’t know which train caused the derailment, said McLean, who added that BNSF will investigate the cause of the derailment.

Propane tanks on BNSF property were struck in the derailment, but do not appear to be compromised, a news release from the Sheriff’s Department said.

“Fortunately, this one here turned out better than last year’s,” McLean said.

Cass County sheriff’s deputies and other officials responded at 5:34 p.m. to a report of a derailment in the 3500 block of 153rd Avenue Southeast, near the Tharaldson Ethanol plant.

Steve Fox said he was working on the nearby McIntyre Pyle farm when the trains derailed.

Fox and his co-workers went out to retrieve two pickup trucks from a field about 5:30, he said.

“There was an eastbound train and I saw sparks off the last car of the eastbound train, so I assume that was the breaks,” he said.

As soon as Fox noticed tanker cars on the westbound side of the tracks, he and his co-workers quickly left because the memory of the explosion in December was still fresh, he said.

Fox said his reaction was, “Let’s get the pickup and let’s get the heck out of here.”

Last Dec. 30, a BNSF train hauling crude oil from western North Dakota derailed about a half-mile west of Casselton, causing a massive explosion. No one was hurt in the explosion, though it has prompted increased calls for safety in shipping oil by rail.

In the December derailment, 13 cars from a westbound soybean train derailed, and one of the derailed cars ended up on the adjacent track. An oncoming train hauling crude oil struck the derailed train, causing the two lead locomotives of the oil train and its first 21 cars to derail. In addition to the 20 oil-carrying tank cars, a train car carrying sand also derailed. In all, the soybean train had 112 cars and the oil train had 106 cars.

A National Transportation Safety Board report on the derailment said the soybean train was traveling about 28 mph when the crew applied emergency brakes. The oil train was going about 43 mph when the crew applied emergency brakes, and its estimated speed at the time of the crash was only 1 mph slower, 42 mph.

“We have a lot of things go through, a lot of them are oil, a lot of them are I don’t know what,” Anderson said Thursday night. “That’s obviously a concern. … They go through fast and they’ve wanted to go through faster.”

Anderson said his city’s request that trains go no faster than 40 mph within city limits has been respected.

“We can’t do anything outside of city limits,” where the two recent derailments took place, said Anderson, who took over as mayor in June. The city doesn’t even “have the authority to enforce the speed limit” in the city, he said.