GLENDORA — In the wake of Saturday's derailment and train tanker fire involving a toxic chemical, an army of Canadian National Railway workers utilizing a wide array of machinery large and small has descended upon this village to make repairs necessary to get the track open again.
The mammoth job has involved removing 22 cars that derailed from the 139-car and two-locomotive CN freight train, cleaning debris, removing and replacing damaged sections of ties and rails and performing a bevy of maintenance and inspection activities to ensure this section of the track is ready for safe resumption of railroad operations.
One such machine observed Wednesday afternoon was a railroad tamper, which was on the track near Fredric Road south of Glendora.
An email request to a CN spokesperson about an estimated timeframe for reopening the line went unanswered by the post time of this story.
Since the accident, CN freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains, which share this particular line, have been diverted to other rail lines in the area, including that owned and operated by the Grenada Railroad, a 228-mile-long short line railroad that runs from Southaven to Canton, passing through Yalobusha and Grenada counties on that journey.
Read also the first (July 5), second (July 6) and third (July 7) stories posted by The Sun-Sentinel about this incident.
The online nonprofit news organization Mississippi Today on July 9 posted an environmental story regarding Glendora citizens worrying about their health in the wake of the chemical fire.
