For the second time in four years, railcars from the Central Nova Scotia Railway have derailed and crashed into Jim Clark's back yard in Stellarton.
Despite the danger, and the re-run of 2014, the homeowner is taking it a lot easier than you'd expect.
“All of the sudden, I could feel the ground rumble, so I grabbed my coffee,” said Clark. “I ran directly out into my yard and at that point I watched the two cars leave the track.”
The two toppled train cars that crashed through Clark's garden and part of his back yard just after ten o'clock Tuesday morning were carrying carbon black, which is used in the manufacturing of tires.
Emergency crews responded and quickly determined it wasn't hazardous to the environment.
Jim recognized the stuff, and the mangled scene itself looked very familiar.
“I worked with that in Michelin for years, so i knew exactly what it was and it was the same cars that actually went off here five years ago,” said Clark. “They were carbon black cars as well.”
On March 28, 2014, three cars derailed in the exact same spot on Clark’s property.
It's a side line of the railway, where cars are supposed to stop if they get away from the nearby rail yard.
“They have stops here on the end of the tracks the trains from going to the main crossing on Bridge Avenue,” said
Stellarton Fire Chief Dwight Campbell.
Cranes will be brought in to put the cars back on the rails
The first order of business, though, is covering the carbon black before the rain could make a dirty mess.
Clark says he has no thoughts of moving.
“I have no concerns,” he said.
Because the train derailment is not on the main line, it's not expected to affect train traffic through this area. However, it is expected to take a day or two to clean up. With files from Dan MacIntosh.
