All were carrying grain, Strathcona County said in a Facebook post.
That’s a lot of grain.
One jumbo covered CN hopper car can carry up to 103 tonnes – or approximately 3,784 bushels of wheat. Or roughly 4,541 bushels of canola.
Spilled grain from a CN train in Alberta. (CTV Edmonton photo).
If all 17 derailed cars spilled all their grain, that’s about 64,328 bushels of wheat or 77,197 bushels of canola.
Investigators are on scene.
“We’re going to assess the situation,” Don Crawford, a regional senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told Global News. “We’ll be looking at various things, whether it’s mechanical or road, or engineering, or possibly train handling.”
The track remained closed Wednesday, with trains starting to move through the area on Thursday.
Farms.com has contacted CN for details on what happened to the spilled grain and if CN would cover any costs associated with the spilled cargo.