25-car train derailment reported near Quinn’s Hot Springs

ST. REGIS, Mont. – Montana Rail Link is investigating a train derailment directly across the Clark Fork River from Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort, southeast of Plains.

At least one rail car carrying hazardous material – butane, a form of liquefied petroleum gas – derailed around 9 a.m. Sunday, but MRL and local first responders confirmed there was no release of hazardous materials. The only cargo known to have spilled was some powdered clay and multiple box cars of Coors Light and Blue Moon beer, in cans and bottles. There were no injuries in the derailment. No cars caught fire.

By 4 p.m. Sunday, crews were stringing a floating boom across the river to contain anything drifting downstream. That included a lot of beers.

At least 20 cars of a westbound freight train derailed, according to MRL Director of Communications Andy Garland and Plains-Paradise Rural Fire Chief James Russell. Motorists could see about 18 partially or fully derailed rail cars from Highway 135, where law enforcement officers were trying to keep onlookers from blocking the road around blind curves. Some boxcars were overturned and four were partially in the Clark Fork River. More boxcars were derailed inside a century-old tunnel just east of the visible cars.

Garland said it was unclear how long it would take to remove the derailed cars and repair the stretch of railroad. The earthen grade at the site of the derailment appeared to have partially collapsed into the river, leaving rails strung in the air above.

The train derailed on an MRL line but it was not immediately clear Sunday whether the train that derailed was owned and operated by MRL or another railway that runs trains on MRL’s network.

“We’re just kind of digging into the investigation piece,” Garland said at the derailment site Sunday afternoon. He explained that access is a challenge: Although the derailment is highly visible, it can only be accessed by vehicles traveling the single, blocked railroad track along the river, or by taking a boat across the river.

Russell said first responders were dispatched to the derailment at 9:31 a.m. In his 12 years with the department, this was his first train derailment. Eleven firefighters spread across six engines or trucks responded, he said, including a swift-water rescue team with a raft and jet skis. Whitewater Rescue Institute also had watercraft and personnel on scene Sunday.

Emergency response began by determining what was in the rail cars and if anything had leaked, Russell said. He said that he, Sanders County Dispatch and MRL were able to quickly and independently confirm each car’s contents using the train’s freight manifest, and then confirm their work with each other. Russell used an air monitor in addition to visual inspection to confirm that no butane was released from a derailed tank car carrying the highly flammable material.

The powdered clay initially caused concern, he said, because wind gusts Sunday morning blew the material into wisps that looked like smoke. “It looked ominous when we got here,” he said.

“Biggest concern with an occupied area like Quinn’s is making sure life-safety concerns are being addressed,” Russell said. “Our local MRL guys showed up really fast. They had guys on the ground there right away.”

Denise Moreth, Quinn’s general manager for the past two decades, said that front-desk workers Sunday morning heard a “loud, rumbling crash, and then they heard the train derailment.” Moreth quickly headed to the resort and remained there Sunday afternoon. First responders initially evacuated all 17 riverfront cabins at the resort as a precaution, she said. The evacuation was scaled back to seven cabins for the next two days.

She estimated at least four or five trains pass through daily. This was the first derailment in her many years at Quinn’s, she said.

“One guest slept through it,” she said.