Joe Stubler and David Hyler were planning their day’s work at a house renovation at Crissey Road and Old Airport Highway when the noise erupted from the nearby Norfolk Southern railroad tracks Thursday morning.

“All of a sudden there was this big screeching and clanging, and there were just clouds of dust and [railroad] cars piling up,” Mr. Stubler said. “We just turned and ran out the back door.”

The twisted ankle Mr. Hyler suffered when he stepped in a hole inside the house appeared, however, to be the only injury even remotely attributed to the 16-car derailment on the main line tracks between Toledo and Chicago.

PHOTO GALLERY: Norfolk Southern train derailment

Nothing caught fire, the train’s crew were unharmed, and the only leak was some vegetable oil from a tank car that remained upright — although that was enough for the Springfield Township Fire Department to set up an 800-foot evacuation radius for about an hour until they identified the leak.

Most of the rail cars involved in the 8:25 a.m. derailment carried sand, large amounts of which spilled and created the dust cloud that several people saw after hearing the racket.

“It shook the house. I never felt it shake that bad,” said Lillian Knauss, who was visiting her daughter’s family in the Geiser Road house where she used to live. “My son-in-law ran and looked out the back window and said he couldn’t even see the tracks.”

The derailment involved the eastbound train’s 11th through 26th cars, with the first four remaining upright and connected to the train’s head end, which came to a stop about a quarter-mile east of Crissey Road. The speed limit there is 50 mph, but it was unclear how fast the train was going, Susan Terpay, a railroad spokesman, said.

The other 12 piled up on and near the Crissey crossing, with one boxcar coming partially to rest in Old Airport Highway’s westbound lane and others blocking — and damaging — the second main track parallel to the one upon which the train was running.

The wreck forced Norfolk Southern to delay or reroute scores of freight trains that normally travel the tracks between Toledo and Indiana every day. Ms. Terpay said derailment repair contractors expected to have one track reopened late Thursday. She said it was unknown when the other track was to reopen.

Springfield Township Fire Chief Barry Cousino predicted Crissey will be closed for up to a week at the crossing because of pavement damage.

Chief Cousino said it was fortunate no vehicles were waiting at the crossing when the train derailed.

“It’s amazing, because they’re usually backed up there,” the chief said.

Bobby Parker, who owns the nearby Sandman Sales Yard landscaping-materials firm, said having seen the wreckage would make him think twice about stopping close to the track at railroad crossings in the future.

“It was just amazing, the wheels coming off and things flying around,” said Mr. Parker, who was at his business when he heard the noise and looked out to see the aftermath. “... I don’t know how many times I’ve sat up there. It’s scary — and it could have been ugly.”

But the only damage to vehicles was some broken windows in a used-car lot on the north side of the crossing that were struck by flying debris.

“We were all in there having coffee and all you heard was ‘eeeeee,’” Rick Roe, whose father owns Dick’s Auto Sales and Crissey Auto Auction, said to describe the screeching sound from the train’s wheels.

Mr. Roe was one of several people who speculated that recent track repairs in the area could have been a factor in the derailment. Ms. Terpay said the cause is under investigation and she could not speculate on it.

Investigators at the scene paid the most attention to the vegetable-oil tank car, from which a wheel assembly had come loose at the forward end of the car. Debris from that assembly, known on the railroad as a truck, was scattered behind the spot where the tank car came to a stop.

The blocked tracks forced Amtrak to divert its Chicago-bound Lake Shore Limited train, already seven hours late when it reached Toledo, onto a line across Michigan, and the Washington-bound Capitol Limited was expected to take the same detour route overnight.

Amtrak trains scheduled for Toledo stops early this morning were expected to be allowed to pass by the derailment site, but delays were likely, said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman. The eastbound Lake Shore Limited to New York and Boston was especially likely to be hours late, because it would not be able to leave Chicago until Thursday’s westbound train arrived and was prepared for its eastbound passengers.

One of two main tracks at the train derailment site in Springfield Township reopened about 8 p.m. and train traffic has resumed, at slow speeds, through the area.

Motorists should expect trains to take longer than usual to cross nearby road crossings. Crissey Road remains closed.

Staff writer Mike Sigov contributed to this report.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published July 4, 2014, 4:00 a.m.