Cleanup, traffic detours continue after CP freight train derails near Craven, Sask.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene in extreme cold weather conditions to find railcars crushed on top of one another, and have continued to through abysmally frigid temperatures.

Cleanup and traffic detours continue after a freight train derailed near Craven, Sask., Tuesday night.

Highway 20 remains closed in the area.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene in extreme cold weather conditions to find railcars crushed on top of one another along the tracks.  They have continued to work through abysmally frigid temperatures overnight and into Wednesday morning.

Witnesses, including members of the Lumsden Fire Department and the Village of Craven, posted videos to their social media pages showing about a dozen CP train cars piled on top of each other against the darkness of night.

Maria Fuller was travelling home with her sisters from Regina to Earl Grey when they saw vehicles making U-turns near the train tracks.

Once they came across the wreckage, they called 9-1-1 and stopped to take a few pictures before backtracking along the dark — and in some sections, slick — highway toward Regina.

In her Facebook video, Fuller describes the scene of the derailment and says, “It looks like the train cars are piled 40 feet in the air.”  She later said, “I think another really interesting thing was the way that the cars were stacked.  It looked a lot like an old car lot with a lot of lined up cars, but just stacked, and it was this crazy, unbelievable site.”

Anyone, like Fuller and her sisters, travelling along Highway 20, were forced them to make alternate travel plans.  A detour away from highway 20 to 6 then to Highway 99 added about 45 minutes to their drive.