I had a little excitement today. This derailment happened two miles from my house. I was driving home on a vehicular overpass spanning several sets of railroad tracks over a railyard in Eugene OR. I noticed a crowd of gawkers on the overpass. As I looked west into the railyard, I saw this huge pile-up that had happened just a few minutes before I passed by. Emergency vehicles were just arriving. I parked a couple blocks away and walked back to take some pictures. This derailment happened on a siding at very low speed.

Several engines were pushing this train from the opposite end of the pile-up. I'd say the train was about a mile long. After the derailment, the train sat at a dead stop blocking virtually every crossing in Eugene for several hours. At least one overturned car carried petroleum, but apparently didn't spill. Fortunately nobody was hurt and it didn't block the main line. We'll learn in coming days if this was track failure, or human failure.

Here is an article (hopefully the URL isn't too long:

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/34835321-75/13-car-train-derailment-prompts-hazmat-precautions-in-west-eugene.html.csp