Railroad officials say the clean up from a partial train derailment at the Delaware/Broome County border will take days.

A Susquehanna Western train with 59 cars and 4 locomotives was traveling between New Jersey and Binghamton when a washout from heavy rain caused 16 cars to leave the track and two locomotives to leak diesel fuel into the West Branch of the Delaware River at around 2:20 a.m. August 9.

Railroad officials say some 4,000 gallons of fuel got into the waterway but the cars carrying a corrosive and radioactive-contaminated soil remained intact.

Some homes had to be evacuated for a time but there were no injuries to residents nor two workers on the train.

A lane of Route 17 east near Hale Eddy Road and Hale Eddy Bridge Road was closed for hours following the derailment but the highway fully reopened by the evening.

Still, motorists should be aware of the activity on the tracks next to the highway, possibly into next week and the chance that cars may slow down as gawkers look at the cleanup operations.

While the work to clean up the train wreck continues, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other groups are looking at the impact of the incident on the environment.  There had been reports by some witnesses of waterfowl covered with diesel oil but, at last word, state officials said they didn’t expect any large impact on the environment.  Crews are continuing to take steps to contain and capture any spills into the river, which is moving very rapidly and a high levels due to heavy rain and flash flooding.

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