[Not a valid template]Transportation officials have determined a Sunday morning derailment of a Norfolk Southern north of Millsboro came after a pine tree fell on the tracks.
State Police reported that a preliminary investigation determined that at about 4 a.m. a Norfolk Southern freight train, with about 70 cars and two locomotives, was traveling southbound in a wooded area north of Millsboro.
The derailment occurred on a section of the tracks east of US 113. The tracks run parallel with the highway between West State Street and Patriots Way. Investigators later determined a pine tree caused the derailment. The tree, with a three to four-inch diameter, apparently fell after the soil became saturated from earlier rainfall. The region has seen record rainfall in the past month.
Fifteen of the cars spilled stone and went off the tracks, while the rest remained upright. The locomotives also derailed but remained upright. The train conductor and engineer were not injured. A quarter-mile length of track was destroyed or heavily damaged, troopers reported.
An assessment of the scene found no threats to the environment or surrounding communities. No detours or road closures were posted in the area of the derailment.
Troopers and Norfolk Southern officials remain on the scene.
