Parts Fly Off Train in Newhall, Causing Damage, No Injuries

Eddie Lemmon, manager of a car repair shop next to the railroad tracks in Newhall, thought children were throwing rocks when he heard a series of loud bangs outside the building.

But the four-inch bolt that shot through the shop’s open garage door put a hole in that theory. And the seven-pound chunk of twisted metal he found in the street could not have been the work of pranksters.

The debris and about a dozen other large pieces of metal that showered cars and buildings in Newhall on Saturday came from a cooling fan that flew off a passing freight train locomotive, authorities said.

Shards Damage Cars, Businesses

No one was injured, but at least two parked cars and a number of businesses were damaged by the flying shards, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Kathryn Nielsen said.

“I heard the train coming, and all of a sudden the building was pelted by pieces of this aluminum fan,” Lemmon said. “It was like shrapnel flying everywhere. I’m surprised nobody got hurt.”

Lemmon said an eight-inch piece of metal came within inches of hitting a pedestrian on the sidewalk outside his business, in the 24300 block of Railroad Avenue. The shop is about 75 yards from the railroad tracks, he said.

He said shards also shattered the window of one parked car and sheared off the side-view mirror of another. A large piece of the fan tore a hole in the side of the Anawalt Lumber hardware store on the other side of the tracks, authorities said.

Fan Discovered Missing

Sheriff’s deputies radioed the crew of the northbound train thought to have caused the incident, said Jerry Pera, a spokesman for Southern Pacific Transportation Co., which operates the trains. The train stopped several miles north of Newhall, and crew members discovered that a fan was missing from the top of the third locomotive, Pera said. The train was being pulled by four locomotives, he said.

Crew members, who were all in the lead locomotive, told inspectors that they were unaware of the incident, Pera said.

After a 2 1/2-hour inspection, the train was permitted to continue its trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Pera said. The cause of the incident was under investigation, he said.