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AUBREY, Texas - A Union Pacific cargo train just missed hitting a house after derailing Wednesday morning.
Thirteen empty rail cars overturned around 9:30 a.m. near Pecan and Main streets in Aubrey, which is in Denton County. One of them crashed through a homeowner’s fence, but no one was hurt.
Rick Huckabee’s home received the most damage. He was working on his antique cars grinding and welding in his shop and had no idea a freight train derailed in his yard till about 10 minutes later when he became curious because he heard the locomotive idling.
The empty rail cars came to a rest in Huckabee’s backyard and did some damage to a shed and knocked down a tree that fell damaging a portion of his roof and gutters.
“I just called my wife and told her we had a train in the backyard,” he said.
Union Pacific Railroad is still trying to find out why the freight train jumped the tracks. Video from SKY4 shows nearly a dozen empty rail cars and an engine came off the tracks. No one was injured, and railroad workers brought in heavy to quickly right the rail cars and to reopen the tracks.
Kerri Moore’s daughter lives across the tracks from Huckabee and came to check on her daughter’s property and pets and everything was fine.
“Oh it could’ve been a lot worse,” she said. “This was a short train, and it was empty. So that was a blessing.”
“We’re fortunate. It didn’t really tear up anything we can’t fix, except for that tree,” Huckabee said.
Aubrey officials said Springhill Road will be shut down at the railroad crossing for an undetermined amount of time.
The cause of the derailment is still under investigation.