In the early morning hours of October 30th, CN L501 departed Flint South Yard and headed west. While passing through the town of Durand, MI., 14 cars, non-consecutively, derailed, all of which were auto racks loaded with new heavy duty Chevy and GMC pickups from GM Flint Truck Assembly. One car tipped over directly on the diamond, and four more further back rolled and were sideways. Fortunately, no crew members were injured, none of the brand new signal equipment was damaged, and luckily avoided the depot at the diamond. Trains ran somewhat normally, with reroutes going over the Holly and Mount Clemens Subs through Detroit to avoid the derailment. Both mains were cleared and reopened about 24 hours after. While the derailment was bad, and did claim a lot of brand new Chevy and GMC diesel trucks, there was a lot of luck with this derailment considering how bad it could have been.
