MONTICELLO - Early Thursday morning, Jane Sebens heard a strange series of loud noises that sounded as if some kind of machine was going haywire.

"I heard a loud, thump, thump, and then it stopped," said Sebens, an employee of Cornerstone group home, across the field from railroad tracks. "It was very, very loud. I was in the med room. I just heard this horrible sound. By the time I got to the other end of the facility, the lights went out."

When Sebens later drove some residents to their workplaces, she noticed the lights were out through much of Monticello.

The power outage, which extended to Argenta and Oreana, was caused by the 6:14 a.m. derailment of a mile-long freight train near the south edge of town.

The 100-car, northbound train's two locomotives and 28 empty cars jumped the track, sending several cars plunging down an embankment, battering three power poles at the edge of a farm field. Residual corn spilled from some of the cars.

The two crew members on the train were not injured, according to Norfolk Southern Corp. spokesman Rudy Husband. The train was traveling from Decatur to Gibson City.

The two locomotives remained upright Thursday morning, with some of their wheels off the tracks.

Some cars were piled on top of each other in the field, while a dozen cars sat sideways across the tracks, lined up side-by-side, apparently caused by an accordion-like effect. Car wheels, torn from the undersides of hoppers, were flung into the field and onto the center of the tracks.

Power was restored to about 1,900 AmerenIP customers about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, according to company spokesman Leigh Morris.

Monticello Police Chief John Miller said it was fortunate the accident occurred at the remote location, causing no injuries or destruction of buildings.

"If you had to have a derailment, this location was probably the better location," Miller said. "If it was in the middle part of town, we'd have a lot bigger problem."

Miller said it also was fortunate that the train was made up of empty grain cars and had no hazardous materials.

"There was a very small leak of diesel fuel coming off the engine," Miller said. "That has been contained. There is no Hazmat problem."

At the point the train left the tracks, there is a farm field to the west and a building and parking lot, belonging to Hundman Truss and Wall Systems, to the east.

When Fred Rusher, production manager at Hundman, arrived at work at 6:45 a.m., he saw police cars in the parking lot and train cars piled up on the tracks.

"It could have been a lot worse," Rusher said. "I'm just glad the cars went on the west side of the tracks and not on the east side, up into the building here."

There also are a series of mobile homes on the east side of the tracks, across a narrow street and about 200 yards north of the engine derailment point.

Husband said Norfolk Southern is conducting an investigation into the cause of the accident. An investigation typically takes a couple of weeks.

"We look at the condition of the track, the condition of the equipment and how the train was being handled," Husband said.

He said the company will retrieve the train's speed from the engine's data recorder.

"The track speed through there is 50 miles per hour," Husband said.

The Federal Railroad Administration also may conduct an investigation, said Warren Flatau, the agency's spokesman.

Flatau said the railroad has until Jan. 30 - 30 days after the month of the accident - to submit its accident report.

"They have to list a probable cause," Flatau said. "If we don't think we have a clear probable cause, we may initiate an investigation."

Flatau said different federal track safety standards and speed limits apply, depending on what is being carried. Tracks that carry passengers and hazardous materials are assigned more stringent standards. Passenger trains are not carried on this train route.

"Most derailments are track caused," Flatau said.

If the train had derailed a half-mile farther north, the cars would have spilled from a bridge onto Center Street, one of Monticello's main arteries.

Ken Paige's house sits in the shadow of the track, a little farther north. Paige visited the derailment scene Thursday to get a close look.

"I am concerned about how the train went off the tracks, since my house is about 30 feet off the tracks," Paige said. "It does concern me, having the train running through Monticello, this close to a lot of homes. I don't know why they build them so close or why I bought one so close."

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.