A few times a day people watch trains pass through East Aurora, so when they heard one Monday night, they thought nothing of it.

What You Need To Know

  • Train derailed in East Aurora around 11 p.m. Monday Night

  • Crews are working to clear the scene

  • A total of 15 cars jumped the tracks

  • No one was hurt

 “We heard it coming and I was excited because I don’t live next to the tracks and I got to see the train right there,” said Jeannine Mulhollan, who witnessed the derailment.

That was until a nearly residents heard a loud noise and they noticed the 98 car train stopped moving.

"Next we were sitting a car shifted off the tracks in the other direction,” Mulhollan recalled.

She wasn’t the only one left startled.

 “It was just a really puzzling sound it was just very unusual and I jokingly said, 'Well maybe it was a meteor that hit somewhere,’” smiled Arno Tapani of East Aurora.

East Aurora police say at around 11 p.m., a train derailed in the parking lot behind the Subway at Main Street and Elm Streets.

A total of 15 cars derailed causing diesel fuel to spill from the engine.

Then the questions began.

 “Is it possible that the switch wasn’t closed all the way and so the lead locomotive jumped the tracks,” Tapani asked. “There was momentum when they just kept going over and over and finally it slid off the bank.”

The train slid off the bank and parked itself feet away from the old depot. Village of East Aurora Police Chief Shane Krieger said it’s nothing short of a miracle.

“It was an act of  God I think for the train to come off here in a parking lot with no structures around or anything,” Krieger said.

The Buffalo Pittsburgh train was heading from Salamanca to Buffalo, carrying hazardous materials like petroleum, when it had some sort of issue.

 “There is a switch that controls the track in the area, we don’t know if that had anything to do with it,” Krieger said.

Krieger says 41 houses were then evacuated. Eight hours later, after his officers did a sweep of about four blocks and determined there were no spills they were able to return home.

Since then, crews have been working endlessly to meticulously pick up each derailed car and place it back on the tracks. It’s expected to take a couple of days.

 “It surely something, I keep staring at it because it’s so unusual it’s like a big train set but really big,” Tapani said.

As to what caused this remains under investigation. In the meantime as cleanup continues, Krieger asked that people stay away from the area.