Local News in Brief : Derailment Speculation

Vandalism was the probable cause of a train derailment that sent four locomotives and a hopper car off tracks in Torrance, railroad officials said Monday.

The accident, which caused no injuries, occurred Sunday night when the engines, pulling a 51-car freight train from Commerce to Wilmington, struck an improperly aligned switch and derailed. The fuel tank on one of the locomotives ruptured and spilled several hundred gallons of diesel fuel.

Units from the Torrance Fire Department and nearby Mobil Oil Corp. refinery contained the fuel spill at the scene, Battalion Chief Jack R. McCarter said. One of the locomotives came to a stop 10 to 15 feet from a liquid petroleum gas line serving the adjacent refinery, he said.

McCarter said employees of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway told firefighters that the switch on railroad property east of Madrona Avenue and north of Oregon Court may have been damaged by a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Tire tracks from such a vehicle were discovered on a nearby dirt road.

“It was a trespasser,” Santa Fe spokesman James Jackson said.

The derailment caused an estimated $77,000 damage, Jackson said. Cranes put the derailed equipment back on the track, and the line was repaired and reopened Monday.