LEE -- The Housatonic Railroad has reopened a section of its railway in Lee, which was shut down over the weekend due to a partial train derailment.
By 4:30 p.m. Monday, Housatonic workers had completed repairs to the rail line damaged by four railroad cars that jumped the tracks shortly after midnight on Friday, according to the railroad company and Lee police.
The accident occurred just south of the overpass entrance to the former Columbia Mill, a paper manufacturing plant located along the Housatonic River on Columbia Street.
No one was hurt and the cause of the derailment is unknown, according to railroad officials.
Housatonic spokesman Colin Pease said two open cars carrying construction debris fell over an embankment while the other two remained in an upright position on the railway bed.
Railroad workers spent the weekend clearing the construction material that was strewn along the crash scene.
They also removed the rail cars still on the tracks so repairs could begin.
The removal of the open cars, or gondolas, is all that remains to complete the cleanup effort, according to Pease.
"They will probably be scrapped for their metal," he said.
To reach Dick Lindsay:
rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com,
or (413) 496-6233.
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