Wiley E. Waters A train wreck that spilled Boeing 737 fuselages has become a destination for curious rafters in the Lower Clark Fork River in Montana. 
 
 WILEY E. WATERS WHITEWATER RAFTING / HANDOUT/EPA Three Boeing 737 fuselages sit near or in the Lower Clark Fork River after a train derailed in Montana. Andrew Spayth/REUTERS One owner of a rafting business says there has been an uptick in calls from customers who want to behold the fuselages before they are removed. Andrew Spayth/REUTERS The plane parts were on their way to Washington state when 19 Montana Rail Link freight cars derailed and lost the cargo west of Missoula. Previous Next 
 
 
 
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 It could be Tuesday before the giant Boeing 737 fuselages are removed from a Montana river, but that’s no problem for rafters. 
 
 Hot weather and tough terrain is to blame for a bogged down cleanup after a train derailed and tossed three fuselages into the Lower Clark Fork River on Thursday. 
 
 The train wreck is turning into a scenic destination for rafters along the popular route where the wide canyon slows to a crawl and lets people get a good look at the fuselages. 
 
 “It’s kind of a surreal thing that comes around the corner. You would never expect it,” Joshua Flanagan, owner of a Spokane-based rafting company, Wiley E. Waters, told the Daily News. 
 
 The plane parts were on their way to Boeing’s Renton, Wash., plant from Wichita, Kan., but 19 of the Montana Rail Link freight cars derailed and lost its expensive cargo west of Missoula. There were six fuselages total, but the others luckily dropped near the tracks above. 
 
 Crews reopened the railroad line Saturday night, but fetching the big parts in the river is “going considerably slower than we hoped,” Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost told the Daily News. “By day’s end, we will be lucky to get one up from the river.” 
 
 It’s still not clear what caused the derailment, but it’s under investigation. 
 
 The rail company had another derailment in Sept. 2013 only 20 miles away. It had 23 cars derail from its line while carrying cargo such as sugar and wood chips, according to KECI-TV. 
 
 A crew of 50 are scratching their heads wondering how to get the parts out of the river. They brought heavy equipment in from Washington and Montana to hoist them up, but the embankment is not in their favor. 
 
 The train was also carrying soybeans and denatured alcohol, according to the Missoulian newspaper, but none of that spilled out. 
 
 Frost added that none of the Boeing parts are toxic to the river. The parts are not a danger to rafters either. The Forest Service is letting rafters float the river as long as they keep to one side of the waterway. 
 
 Flanagan’s rafting business is getting more calls from customers who want to behold the fuselages before crews remove the spectacle. 
 
 “I think people are really anxious to see this unique thing that happened,” Flanagan added. 
 
 The fuselages can be gazed upon just before the last rapid of Flanagan’s route. 
 
 nhensley@nydailynews.com 
 
 Follow me on Twitter: @nkhensley 

 Montana Rail Link crews on Sunday began cleaning up debris from an embankment below the site of last week’s train derailment near Fish Creek, including three aircraft fuselages that went into the Clark Fork River. 
 
 MRL had cleared the area around the tracks and reopened the rail line to train traffic Saturday. 
 
 Company spokeswoman Lynda Frost said work started about 7 a.m. Sunday to pull the Boeing Co. 737 fuselages and train cars out of the water and up the embankment. MRL is using eight pieces of heavy machinery to pull the fuselages up the hill with cables. 
 
 The cleanup, originally expected to be completed by the end of Sunday or early Monday, will likely continue through Tuesday, Frost said. 
 
 “It’s taking longer than we had originally anticipated,” she said. 
 
 MRL stopped train traffic on the line for about 12 hours Sunday during the cleanup, and similar shutdowns are likely as work proceeds. 
 
 Nineteen train cars derailed about 10 miles west of Alberton at 4 p.m. Thursday. Thirteen cars were carrying aircraft components, soybeans and denatured alcohol, and half a dozen were empty. 
 
 While no alcohol leaked and no soybeans spilled, three cars with 737 fuselages went into the river, Frost said. 
 
 No one was injured in the derailment, the cause of which remains under investigation. 
 
 Boeing spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said the seven cars of aircraft components included six 737 fuselages, as well as parts for 747s and 777s. The components were being transported a production facility in Wichita, Kansas to a Boeing assembly plant in Renton, Washington. 
 
 Steinberg declined to give a value for the aircraft components. 
 
 A team from Boeing was on the scene Friday to determine the status of the components and work with MRL to retrieve them. The team had yet to issue a full evaluation. Until that evaluation is completed, Steinberg said, it is unknown whether any of the parts will still be usable. 
 
 Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said there are no plans to close the Clark Fork during the cleanup, but brief delays could occur in the area when the 737 fuselages and other parts are moved. 
 
 One such delay occurred about 1 p.m. Sunday, when floaters were held up about half an hour, said FWP spokeswoman Christine Oschell. 
 
 “It’s possible there will be other brief delays on the river,” she said. 
 
 MRL has been working with FWP and the Whitewater Rescue Institute to keep the river open during the cleanup. 
 
 Members of the Whitewater Rescue Institute are on the river informing floaters of what had happened and watching for hazards. They will remain there throughout the cleanup. 
 
 “We intend to keep (the river) open unless we feel that there is a safety concern,” Oschell said. 
 
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 Zoo Town Surfers owner Jason Shreder said he was upset by FWP’s decision Friday to close the Clark Fork in the area of the derailment – a decision the agency backtracked only on a few hours later. 
 
 “Especially when I’d seen the adequate safety that they have put down there – it’s good that they kept it open,” he said. 
 
 Shreder said Zoo Town, located about a quarter mile upriver of the derailment, received a lot of calls over the weekend from people curious about the incident – and a few people even booked raft trips to see the fuselages and other debris. 
 
 Zoo Town guide Andrew Spayth said the derailment is right after a large section of rapids in the river. 
 
 “You come through them, go right around the corner and boom, (the fuselages are) right there,” he said. 
 
 Spayth floated the river with a few other guides the night of the derailment. 
 
 “We were all just saying, ‘Whoa, there’s full planes in the river, there’s cars everywhere, trees broken and bent,’ ” he said.
– Rafters on Montana's Lower Clark Fork River are encountering an unusual sight as they round a bend: The fuselages of three Boeing 737 aircraft. The huge aircraft bodies and the train cars carrying them got stuck in the river last week when 19 freight cars derailed, the Missoulian reports. Crews hope to get the fuselages out of the river by tomorrow. The train was also carrying soybeans and denatured alcohol, but none of that ended up in the river. The fuselages and other aircraft parts were on their way from a production facility in Kansas to a Boeing assembly plant in Washington state, but for now, they have become a tourist attraction along a popular rafting route. "It's kind of a surreal thing that comes around the corner. You would never expect it," the owner of a rafting company tells the New York Daily News. He says he has been getting plenty of calls from customers who want to see the aircraft parts before crews haul them away. "I think people are really anxious to see this unique thing that happened," he says.