LUVERNE (AP) - Crews worked Thursday to pull parts of rail cars and containers with products ranging from lifejackets to toilet paper out of the Sheyenne River after strong winds derailed a BNSF freight train on a bridge near here.

"We have cranes. We have boats and we have up to 20 front-end loaders," BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.

Griggs County Sheriff Paul Hendrickson said the cars were derailed or lost the cargo they were carrying when the wind hit the train as strong thunderstorms moved through the area Wednesday night. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials spilled, Melonas said.

The train was crossing a bridge at the time and some of the cargo ended up in the Sheyenne River or nearby Lake Ashtabula, Hendrickson said.

Melonas said the train, with three locomotives and 72 segmented cars, was hauling containers from Chicago to Seattle when the storm hit about 7:25 p.m. He said 14 cars went off the trestle above the river. A segmented car is about the length of 45 standard cars, he said.

"Some of the containers broke open, spilling camera film, washers, dryers, lifejackets, toilet paper," Melonas said.

"The majority of the wheels are on the trestle. The trestle itself is stable. It's a matter of replacing the ties," Melonas said.

Crews were working to reopen the line by late Friday, Melonas said, but cleanup of all the debris could take three or four weeks.

"I don't see any evidence that the winds were more than 60 mph or so. It might have been a funneling through the valley," said Gary Votau, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks who went to the scene Thursday.

He said he saw no evidence of a tornado, which would have twisted the cars.

Containers with toilet paper were stacked high, and that might have been a factor in the wreck, he said.

"It was just kind of unstable. It was bad timing for a cross wind like that," Votau said.

Melonas said about 30 trains use the route each day, and BNSF working to reroute them.

"This is an extremely rare occurrence," he said.