The sale includes individual components of Buddy L railroads, including locomotives, tenders, box cars, tankers, coal cars, cattle cars and cabooses.
Oil companies dislike ethanol because it cannot be transported in most pipelines, requiring use of costlier rail cars or tanker trucks.
As heavy snow fell and people worked to rescue victims trapped in cars, a tanker truck, one of at least 20 vehicles involved in the accident, burst into flames, producing a plume of black smoke that marked the site for hundreds of cars and trucks backed up for miles in both directions.
Local emergency officials said all but two of the 109 cars being hauled were tanker cars.
Since Sept. 11, they have been bombarded with warnings about evildoers misusing ambulances, police cars, fuel tankers and charter planes.
There were a few cheers, a few hoots on the horns of cars and tankers, but this victory was bittersweet.
The crash released butyl acetate, a flammable liquid, from a burning tanker car, the authorities said.
The fire in the tanker car was extinguished in the afternoon, and smaller fires in the locomotives were being allowed to burn themselves out, the authorities said.
Extreme heat kept firefighters from reaching a 12,000-gallon tanker car that was leaking 10 gallons of hydrochloric acid a minute.
Rainwater is collected into a salvaged railway tanker car and pumped back into the house to flush the low-flow toilets.
