A Norfolk Southern freight train traveling from Cleveland down the corporation's Chicago Line didn't make it to Bellevue, as it planned, Sunday afternoon after one of its cars left the rails in Vermillion, Ohio.

One car on the 105-car train came off the rail and was leaning 45 degrees to one side in the downtown area of Vermilion between Decatur and Adams streets, according to a news release from the Vermilion Police Department.

A dispatcher said that a resident came into the police station yesterday at 15:38 EDT to report the derailment.

Paul Hillman, who lives on the corner of Liberty Avenue and Decatur Street, was playing outside with his 3-year-old daughter Emma when he heard a loud noise coming from the train tracks nearby. The train was pulling and then Hillman saw the wheels of one of the cars come off the tracks, he said. ''It just made a heck of a noise and a cloud of dust,'' he said.

Hillman said he ran over to the police department a few feet away. Sgt. Gordon Adams said he got the call about the derailment while he was near Perry Street. He watched as the train went off the rails and got on the radio with the dispatcher who called Norfolk Southern and told them to stop the train, Adams said.

There were no damages or injuries, Adams said, and police were monitoring the area in case the train were to topple over.

Norfolk Southern sent personnel to the scene to assess the situation, Adams said.
Rudy Husband, spokesperson for Norfolk Southern, said that the incident is under investigation. The Chicago Line is one of Norfolk Southern's busiest lines with approximately 100 freight trains passing over it each day, Husband said. ''99.9 percent operate without any problem,'' he said.

The 105 mixed freight train was traveling from Cleveland to Bellevue, Husband said, and the car that derailed was carrying steel coils.

Norfolk Southern was running trains around the derailed train and was working quickly yesterday to get it picked up, Husband said.