CHEYENNE — After wildfires south of Cheyenne were fueled by 70 to 80 mph winds last Wednesday, a large BNSF train was blown off the tracks the next night.
Around 17 miles northwest of town, some locals reported being woken up by the sound of the train derailing around 4 a.m. Friday. While the cause was originally uncertain, though most assumed it was the wind, the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed Tuesday there will be no investigation into the incident because it was due to natural causes.
“It’s not uncommon to see high winds cause a derailment,” FRA deputy director of public affairs Warren Flatau told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “That happens annually, probably several times a year. The scale, I’m not sure, because I don’t know how many cars in total went off, but it looked like a significant number.”
Nearby residents have reported on social media that upwards of 100 cars may have left the tracks. The train cars were carrying double-stacked shipping containers, which was likely why the high winds pushed the train cars over.
This is not the first time this has happened in Wyoming this year. Around 20 Union Pacific cars derailed near Bosler in Albany County in August, and two UP trains derailed in June east of Rawlins.
Neither incident was determined to be due to natural causes, however.
A social media post from nearby resident Janet Hill stated that there were no significant property damages as a result of the latest derailment.
Laramie County Sheriff’s Office and Laramie County Fire Authority reported they did not receive any calls for service to the area.
Flatau said BNSF will have to report the incident to FRA because it met the monetary damage threshold of $12,600, and estimated it will be around three months before FRA receives any report from BNSF.
BNSF did not respond to WTE’s request for comment before publication.
The derailment comes a week after a Wyoming Highway Patrol report that nearly 40 vehicles were toppled while driving on Wyoming interstates over the course of only three days.
Following the train incident, locals took to social media to share stories of the Wyoming wind.
“Yea we’ve had empty coal trains shutdown due to the wind off and on last couple of days. Blow over speed for a lot of those empty cars is around 70mph,” Buck Brown wrote on Facebook.
“Not the first time empty coal cars have been blown over on Sherman Hill. I recall seeing same thing happened in later 70s when I was a brakeman,” wrote Clarence Darling.
According to other social media posts, BNSF hired a company to bring in cranes and other heavy equipment to remove the cars from the tracks so that the tracks could be reopened, and the cars will be removed from the site over time.
