RUMFORD — A slow-moving Pan Am Railways train derailed Tuesday morning near the lower gate entrance at the NewPage Corp. paper mill.
Mill spokesman Tony Lyons said there was no danger to the public.
“There is a train that is derailed and it’s on the northern side of Veterans Street on the rail track there adjacent to the chip piles,” Lyons said.
The engine didn’t derail, just some boxcars that he said were empty.
“I’m not sure if it was an inbound or an outbound that actually derailed,” he said.
The incident, which happened at about 10 a.m., involved three empty boxcars, Cynthia Scarano, Pan Am vice president, said early Tuesday afternoon in North Billerica, Mass.
“They were just switching in the yard, so they’re all upright, in line, so we’re expecting them back on very quickly,” she said of the boxcars.
Scarano said Pan Am officials haven’t yet determined what caused the derailment or if there was any damage.
As Pan Am officials worked to get the boxcars back on the rails, red lights at the nearby rail crossing on Veterans Street continued to flash, causing confusion among several drivers crossing the yard from Routes 2 and 108.
“Whenever there is a train there, it activates the crossing lights,” Lyons said.
Traffic, whether it was cars or commercial trucks and logging trucks, stopped at the crossing as usual when the signal is flashing.
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- A Pan Am Railways locomotive idles Tuesday morning after boxcars it was either pulling or pushing derailed at the NewPage Corp. paper mill in Rumford.
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- Traffic across the NewPage Corp. mill yard on Veterans Street between Route 108 and Route 2 in Rumford slows Tuesday morning as rail-crossing warning lights flash red. The lights were on due to a nearby Pan Am Railways train that derailed at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.
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- A mill yard employee at NewPage Corp. follows tracks from Veterans Street to a Pan Am Railways train that derailed Tuesday morning at the Rumford paper mill near its lower gate entrance.
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