A train owned by the Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad company derailed on a trestle over the Intracoastal Waterway this morning and is hanging over the edge. It has spilled about 1,700 gallons of diesel fuel into the waterway.

No one was injured during the incident, which happened around 5 a.m. on the trestle near the Centerville area of the city, according to the Coast Guard.

Cleanup is already under way by Coast Guard crews, firefighters who specialize in hazardous materials and a private contractor, HEPACO, but is expected to last through the weekend, according to the Coast Guard. Crews won't work at night because of low visibility and safety hazards. The Coast Guard investigators and representatives from the Department of Environmental Quality are on the scene.

By this afternoon, about 550 gallons of the fuel had been recovered.

“Right now, it’s just under investigation is all we can really say,” said Donia Crime, a spokeswoman for RailAmerica Inc., the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company that owns and operates Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad. “Engineers are on-site trying to assess what damage there is, if any, to the bridge, track and the locomotive.”

The Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad is a “short line” railroad that operates from Edenton, N.C., through Elizabeth City to Norfolk. Its major customers include readymix concrete plants. The company began operations in 1990 after leasing the line from Norfolk Southern Corp., according to the Chesapeake & Albemarle’s Web site.

The Coast Guard has closed the river from the Great Bridge Lock to the Albemarle entrance to the Intracoastal Waterway, the agency reported in a news release.

The agency reported that the bridge, owned by the railroad company, is required to be kept open to water traffic and is permitted to close only for the crossing of trains and for maintenance, the release said.

The cause of the wreck is under investigation.