(The following article by Aracely Hernandez was posted on the Dekalb Daily Chronicle website on May 16.)
SOMONAUK, Ill. — No one was hurt after one of 19 cars on an Amtrak train derailed Sunday on tracks parallel to Route 34 near Green Street.
Around 4:20 p.m., the Southwest Chief, a passenger train headed to Los Angeles, was about 60 miles into its journey when it was passing through Somonauk and a trailing refrigerated box car went off the tracks. There were no passengers in that car, which was dragged for less than a mile at about 79 mph. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
There were 191 passengers and 15 crew members on the train, which was delayed about four hours but was on its way after the last two railcars were removed.
The car being dragged caused the west overhead signal structure to collapse and fall across two tracks, which then had to be closed.
Officer Todd Mikkelson with the Somonauk Police Department said train crossing gates were activated at four stops throughout town and some members of the Somonauk Fire Department directed traffic until about 8 p.m. when all of the crossings went up.
Mikkelson said work crews with heavy equipment arrived around 8 p.m. and the two remaining cars were put back on the tracks and taken to a nearby rail yard.
Train traffic resumed around 1 a.m.