GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. -- Burlington Northern freight and Amtrak passenger train service returned to normal Wednesday after two derailments and officials planned to treat spilled grain to make sure it does not ferment and intoxicate foraging bears.
Burlington Northern's main Chicago-Seattle line was reopened at 2 a.m. Wednesday after repairs and cleanup from a derailment of three eastbound BN double-stacked container cars near Coram, Mont., Tuesday morning.
That accident followed Sunday's derailment of 22 westbound BN cars, mostly carrying corn, at Blacktail near the southern tip of Glacier National Park.
No injuries were reported but freight service was delayed throughout BN's system and 500 passengers either had to be bused around derailment sites or endured delays of eight hours.
Burlington spokesman Howard Kallio said workers were trying to salvage as much of the spilled corn as possible near the national park, and the rest will be treated with lime at the end of the winter to prevent bears from eating it.
The Blacktail derailment was at nearly the same spot as a big barley spill during a derailment seven years ago, said Park Resource Ranger Gary Gregory.
And just 4 miles to the east, a corn spill in 1985 proved especially troublesome because unsalvaged corn was buried, got wet and fermented underground.
'It smelled like a brewery up there,' Gregory said.
The fermenting corn attracted grizzly and black bears, along with spectators who watched them dig up and eat the fermented grain, often getting drunk in the process.
'The bears actually excavated holes three or four feet' into the railroad grade, said Jim Cross, Kalispell area wildlife manager for the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department.
'They had a heyday because the bears got drunk,' Kallio said. 'It created a safety situation with tourists and drunk bears. In the spring when the snow melts, we'll apply the lime to whatever corn is still left there.'
Besides that expense, Burlington estimates damages from that derailment at $400,000, plus $20,000 from the Coram accident, Kallio said.
The Blacktail derailment was caused by 'slack action' as the train descended a grade, lifting a wheel off the track. The cause of the Coram accident was not known.
A third Montana derailment near Livingston also was cleared up early Wednesday by Montana Rail Link Inc. crews, officials said.
