No spills, but ski hill access blocked for two hours after train derails in B.C.

GOLDEN, B.C. – A Canadian Pacific train derailment in British Columbia interrupted access to a ski hill, but firefighters say rail cars that were carrying fuel and grain never spilled.

CP spokeswoman Salem Woodrow says the freight train derailed Saturday afternoon in the railyard at Golden, but there were no injuries or public safety concerns.

Jay LaRoy with Golden Fire Rescue says several cars carrying diesel and grain derailed, and some that remained upright extended over a bridge that crosses the Kicking Horse River.

LaRoy says those cars couldn't be detached until it was certain they wouldn't flip and fall into the water, and during that time access to the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort was blocked for about two hours.

He says none of the contents of the derailed cars spilled.

Woodrow says the cause of the derailment is under investigation.

LaRoy says the railway crews that responded to the derailment had been at the wreck west of Banff on Thursday, where 20 railcars from a CP freight train went off the tracks.

No one was hurt and no dangerous goods were spilled in that derailment, but Parks Canada is worried that spilled grain will attract hungry grizzly bears as they emerge from hibernation in the coming weeks.

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Shelby Thevenot

Shelby has lived across Canada. She grew up near Winnipeg, Manitoba then obtained her B.F.A in Multidisciplinary Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta. In 2014 she moved to Montreal, Quebec to study French and thrived in the Visual Journalism Graduate Diploma program at Concordia University. Now she works at iNFO News where she strives to get the stories that matter to the Okanagan Valley community.

Member of:

The Professional Writers Association of Canada

Quebec Writers Federation

English Language Arts Network