Train derails in Morganton
One of two engines and four train cars that derailed near East Union Street in Morganton on Tuesday.
A railroad worker walks along the train tracks above East Union Street in Morganton as firefighters and police respond to a train derailment in the woods on Tuesday.
A Hickory teenager grabbed his drone and headed to Morganton once he heard a train had derailed on Tuesday afternoon.
Nathan Wike, 17, started his interest in trains when he was 4. Wike said he has been all over the country following trains and taking photos.
Wike knows some of the personnel working on the trains and regularly listens to railroad scanner traffic. Even though Wike knows modern trains are safer, he was concerned when he heard about the derailment, he said.
"You always worry when you hear it's somebody that you know," Wike said. "Especially somebody that you see go by and they blow the horn and wave at you every day. They make your day better, and we make their day better. When you hear some news like that, it is hard to take it until you get up here and kind of see what happened. But I'm glad to hear that they're OK."
The derailment shut down East Union Street in Morganton from Kirksey Drive to U.S. Highway 70. East Union Street will be closed for 24 hours, Morganton Department of Public Safety said in a news release.
The train derailed around 3 p.m. Three personnel were on the train at the time of the crash. One of the train personnel was injured and taken to a hospital for treatment. The other two were uninjured, Burke County Emergency Communications' Ali Rose said around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The train had two engines and 10 cars. Four of the cars and the two engines left the track. Six of the train's cars were still on the tracks, Rose said.
The train belongs to Norfolk Southern, which would be taking over the investigation, Rose said.
The cause of the derailment was unknown as of 3:30 p.m., Morganton Department of Public Safety said.
Wike said the train that derailed travels from Hickory to the SGL Carbon LLC plant near Morganton, switches cars and then goes to a paper products manufacturing plant.
"(The railroad company) sent a track guy out this morning to check on everything, and I guess it was fine," Wike said. "This train usually runs west in the morning, like super early. So, I don't know what happened today that they (the train) were so late, but it was unfortunate that they were."
Sarah Johnson is the courts and breaking news reporter for the Hickory Daily Record.
