Monday, June 03, 2013

Train Derailment - Sometimes Paradise gets roughed up

Yesterday afternoon, just five miles down the road from us, a freight train derailed in the village of Denair.  Derailing is common enough (according to one of the clean up crew I talked to) but rare to happen in one's neighborhood.  The last time I recall a derailment around here was about twenty years ago.  I wasn't as free to get around and take pictures then.  Location of derailment and raising kids and working and going to and from school, and, and, and . . . all conspired to keep me from getting pictures of that one.  And it was huge and took forever to clear.  Denair's stretched across the north and south crossings through the village so it was easier to slip in and get the pictures.

Of course, asking permission to go here and there isn't in my vocabulary.  People always say "no".  So I walk on, keep my camera up and blend into the surroundings acting like I'm wearing a sign that says "I belong here".  Of course, generally I don't and security generally catches up with me and invites me to go "wherever".  In this case, it was the other side of the road (sort of like the proverbial chicken).  Anyway, about the pictures -  I took several.  Here are the best of the group.


















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10 comments:

Ginny Hartzler said...

Oh MY GOSH, you done GOOD, these are excellent! Was anyone hurt...I guess there were only one or two people on it.

Anonymous said...

Oooo..that looks scary. I've been in a carriage derailment, just as a passenger in an old fashioned tourist train but the sound is awful - something that size would be monumental.

Annie Jeffries said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Annie Jeffries said...

Yes, being a freight train, it had a limited crew. If there were any unauthorized passengers, they got a rude surprise.

The folks who live in Denair really felt it. I spoke to one man who lives four blocks from the tracks. He said it sound like an explosion and felt like an earthquake.

SmilingSally said...

Hi Annie,

Please place a link to Blue Monday on your post so that others can find us. Then return to link in again with Mr. Linky. You can find the code when you click on the blue bird located in my sidebar.

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com

SmilingSally said...

Thanks for using the Blue Monday link, Annie.

Nonnie said...

good detailed photos even though you were across the road. the first year of my teaching at St. Lawrence, there was a derailment in the neighborhood; we had to vacate the school because of hazardous materials on the train.

Jeanie said...

Wow, Annie -- you did a nice job! Maybe you should be a documentary photographer. It's an awful incident, but you did well by it.

Darla said...

Whoa, that's scary. I like to take passenger trains and so don't like to think about derailment very much. You got some great photo's. Interesting how they were propping those large freight cars back up.

Darla

rebecca said...

on a brighter note, long ago i took a beautiful train on the coast from san diego to santa barbara. so gorgeous...the ocean gleaming, the landscape pure and natural, no hint of mankind. suddenly looking out the window their was a smattering of thousands of neon colour teddy bears. it was as if the shy had opened up and dropped them below to let them fall to the ground below. apparently lost cargo from a fast moving train.