KALAMAZOO

— A freight train derailed today in Kalamazoo when a section of track broke, but no rail cars overturned and nothing spilled, officials with Grand Elk Railroad said.

The train, bound for Graphic Packaging on the city's north side, was about a mile south of its destination at Porter and Myrtle streets when a section of rail broke, said Grand Elk Railroad officials, who declined to give their names.

"It gets cold and the rail gets brittle," a Grand Elk official said of the section of rail that broke. "The circumstances were right."

A section of rail about 60 feet long broke, with one rail protruding upward and the other snapped and lying in snow.

The train was carrying liquid clay to Graphic Packaging when it derailed at around 10 a.m., according to railroad officials.

Maria Luckett was sleeping on the couch in a home on Myrtle Street when she felt rumbling and the house shook. "We thought it was an earthquake or something," said Luckett, 43.

Scott Stricklin, another resident of the Myrtle Street home, said he was cooking breakfast when he "heard a screeching sound. It was like thunder or an earthquake under the house," he said.

After discovering that the train had derailed, Stricklin, 47, said his first concern was that hazardous materials might have leaked from the rail cars.

A Grand Elk Railroad official said the liquid clay in the cars is nonhazardous and that nothing leaked.

Railroad officials said a "sidewinder" will be brought in to move at least four cars that derailed back onto the tracks, which will be repaired. They said it will take until tonight to complete that process.