LEEDS — Route 219 has been reopened to traffic following this morning’s train derailment, a state official said.

Authorities said no one was injured when a Pan Am Railways freight train derailed in Leeds. The derailment led to the closure of Route 219 for a time but Ted Talbot, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the road was opened back up to traffic shortly before 11 a.m.

Talbot said it appeared the train was backing its cars into a grain silo.

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office saysPan Am Railways notified them of the derailment.

A dispatcher said a call came in around 5:30 a.m. this morning that a train had derailed in Leeds near the Wayne town line. The derailment is near the intersection of routes 219 and 106.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately know what led to the derailment, how many cars had gone off the track, or what those cars were carrying. The office said a crane was on its way from Massachusetts to help pick the cars back up.

A Pan Am official reached by phone this morning said only that Vice President Cynthia Scarano could discuss the derailment and she was not available to do so until Monday.

On scene this morning, it appeared that at least two cars had derailed near a Pan Am silo. A dozen Pan Am workers could be seen using an excavator, tools and engines to right the derailed train. There was no visible train cargo. 

Leeds is about 20 miles west of Augusta.


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