North Texans wary after second train derailment in two years

GORDON, Texas — Railroad tracks have run through Gordon, Texas, since its founding in 1880. But after two derailments in two years, some residents are increasingly leery of the tracks that helped put their town on the map.

The Tuesday derailment 2 miles east of Gordon sent boxcar, specialty, and tank cars tumbling off the tracks at the Coalville Road Bridge, where the tracks parallel Texas 193.

Almost three dozen cars jumped the track, and sparks from the derailment caught the grass on fire near the tracks. Some of the cars carried potentially hazardous chemicals, but none of them leaked, according to Kent Farquhar, assistant fire chief for Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District 1.

"I heard it when it hit down there,” Gordon resident Diana Smith said from her home nearly two mi