TWO HARBORS - The NorthShore Inline Marathon started out with a bang Saturday morning as a Canadian National Railway train crashed into a car near the starting line of the race.
Lake County Sheriff Carey Johnson said the crash happened at about 5:30 a.m. He said it wasn't clear whether the car stalled out on the tracks at the crossing on Scenic 61 or whether it was parked there.
"It looked like it was stuck on the track," Johnson said. He said there have been no reported injuries from the accident and they are still looking for the owner of the car. No one was in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Johnson said he hasn't heard of an accident like this in Two Harbors before.
The CN train was heading out of Two Harbors when the accident occurred. There were no visual signs of the accident at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
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The marathon did start on time, despite the train blocking part of Scenic 61. The ore cars were pushed apart so racers could make it through to the starting line, just north of Two Harbors. Approximately 3,000 entrants were expected for Saturday's marathon (2,600) and accompanying half-marathon (400), about a 9 percent drop from last year's totals of 2,776 in the marathon and 398 in the half-marathon (3,174).
In June a CN train derailed near Brimson in rural St. Louis County, tipping 14 of its 120 cars full of iron ore headed to the docks in Two Harbors.
