Police are placing residents on a van to be taken to a senior center for two to three hours until the area is clearned, according to a police spokesman at the scene.
There are no leaks in the rail car with the propane, a spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management, Andrew Troisi, said earlier.
Still, officials appeared to be evacuating the Arenson Office Furnishing, a nearby commercial building, as a precaution Friday afternoon when a crane arrived to reposition the three derailed cars, Troisi said.
The accident, in which the front cars of a seven-car train derailed, happened near Otto Road on tracks owned by the New York & Atlantic Railway -- about a half mile from the Maspeth site where another train derailed in January when the breaks failed on a train being backed into the Fresh Pond Junction yard, pushing the last car off the track.
Police have cordoned off a large portion of the area near the tracks.
