Trains in Sierra are back on schedule after derailment

Amtrak trains returned to a normal schedule through the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, two days after the fatal derailment of a runaway maintenance train spilled thousands of gallons of diesel and hydraulic fluid and damaged 600 feet of track in a thickly forested canyon.

The first freight train had rolled through the accident scene by midmorning Friday. Crews worked the rest of the day repairing parallel tracks that were also damaged in the accident about 60 miles east of Sacramento.

The crash backed up freight and passenger rail traffic both ways along the busy east-west corridor.

“Yesterday they had some delays just because of congestion,” Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said Saturday.

“They have normal operations today,” she added.

Two employees of the train operator, South Carolina-based Harsco Track Technologies, were killed Thursday as the train gained speed on a steep mountain descent then flipped off the tracks at a curve.

Frantic efforts to slow the train down failed, eight surviving crew members told investigators Friday.