MILFORD, Maine — Two empty boxcars from a Pan-Am Railways train jumped the tracks early Thursday morning and the stopped train blocked access to French Island, Route 178 and the Call Road for a short period of time, Gary Crouse of Old Town police said.
All the roadways except for Bosworth Street onto French Island had been cleared and reopened by 9 a.m., he said.
“The box cars are all cleared up,” Crouse said. “They are still working on Bosworth. It looked like they were working on the track.”
A derailment in April blocked access to French Island for several hours, preventing emergency crews from getting on the island and people from getting to and from their homes.
That was not the case when the two empty train cars went off the tracks about 1:45 a.m. Thursday, Old Town Fire Chief Steve O’Malley said.
“We were notified fairly quickly that we could get on the island,” he said.
While work crews fix the train tracks, other workers from the Milford Public Works Department continue their work, started earlier this week, on smoothing the vehicle passage lane over the train tracks at the junctions with Route 178, County Road and the Call Road.
“They’re leveling the tracks and putting down new tar,” Crouse said.
The work is done on Route 178 and nearly done on the County Road, he said.