While crossing a small wooden bridge in northwestern Iowa on March 16, 20 rail tank cars in a mile-long train transporting ethanol flew off the tracks, sending fireballs into the sky as thousands of gallons of the biofuel leaked into the creek below.

As the amount of crude oil being shipped by rail declines, it is unlikely that Watertown-based New York Air Brake will see a drop in business for the time being.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Authority, or SMART, prevented a North Coast freight operator from delivering a dozen more railcars filled with an estimated 396,000 gallons of flammable gas to a storage site south of Sonoma, escalating tensions between the rail agencies.

The Union Pacific oil train that derailed June 3 in Mosier, Oregon, rolled into the Port of Tacoma on June 19 with little notice, despite the intense scrutiny its wreck, spill and fire attracted to the expanding practice of shipping crude oil by rail through the Columbia River gorge and the greater Pacific Northwest.

HOLDINGFORD, Minn. — Mild shock waves can be felt throughout a Central Minnesota community as it prepares to lose a major manufacturing facility.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Transport Canada released a “harmonized” final tank car safety rule that is meant to avert all rail accidents involving crude by rail and other volatile hazardous materials.

The National Transportation Safety Board on April 6 urged hazardous material regulators to step up requirements for replacing or retrofitting tank railcars that carry flammable liquids such as crude oil and ethanol with better thermal protection.

Oil tank cars like those that ruptured in a train derailment in rural West Virginia on Feb. 16, sending a massive fireball into the sky and forcing evacuation of nearby homes, could be rolling through U.S. cities for years to come.