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Train derailment
August 20, 2008
Train derails downtown
Nicole and Stu Smith were sitting in their second-floor apartment at 300 North Lamar Boulevard this morning when Stu Smith says they heard “the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life.”
The noise was the sound of one of two train cars that derailed in downtown Austin around 9:19 a.m. and struck a balcony of the apartment building. It is unclear how the train derailed.
The derailment happened near Third and Baylor streets, close to the Amtrak station. One car came completely off the tracks and another was partially off the tracks. Both cars appeared to be empty. The derailed cars that were blocking traffic on Baylor Street have been moved off of the main track and they will be removed later today.
Veneza Aguiñaga, a police spokeswoman, said the Union Pacific train had 81 cars and two engines and was headed north. The train had stretched to near Barton Springs Road on the south side of Lady Bird Lake, but the rest of the train cars and the two engines continued on to their destination at around 1:45 p.m., she said.
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