Pompeys Pillar – A fire that broke out on an eastbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotive near Pompeys Pillar Wednesday morning delayed trains for three hours.
No one was injured in the fire.
According to BN spokesman Gus Melonas of Seattle, the locomotive that caught fire was one of two at the end of a 120-car coal train that originated in Wyoming and was eastbound to Cohassett, Minn. The train had another two locomotives at the front, he said.
The fire started at about 11 a.m. in a traction motor on the last locomotive, he said. Crews stopped the train and closed the single track. The last two locomotives were detached from the train, Melonas said, and the operable locomotive was used to tow the one that burned to Laurel for a mechanical inspection.
No right-of-way was burned and no track was damaged, Melonas said. Five trains were delayed while the track was closed, he said.
Coincidentally, a second BN Santa Fe train caught fire in Montana on Wednesday morning, a mixed freight (intermodal) train near Whitefish. Melonas said that train originated in Seattle bound for Chicago, and the track was closed for four hours.
