(The following story by Jodi Pospeschil appeared on the Peoria Journal Star website on December 2.)
COLCHESTER, Ill. — A train car hauling oatmeal derailed early Tuesday west of Colchester, damaging the city’s three railroad crossings and rerouting traffic for several hours.
The westbound BNSF freight train made an emergency stop on the edge of Colchester at about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday.
Tuesday’s accident forced motorists to travel to crossings in rural Macomb or just east of Tennessee. It also caused rerouting of school buses attempting to get students to classes on both sides of the tracks.
Amtrak traffic through the region was also hampered by the accident. Company spokesman Mark Magliari said all four trains traveling between Quincy and Chicago on Tuesday were affected.
Travelers going from Quincy to Chicago early Tuesday morning were transported by buses chartered by the company, as were passengers going from Chicago to Quincy on Tuesday night. Amtrak’s two midday trains ran between Galesburg and Chicago only with passengers bused to Quincy to board.
Colchester Police Chief Dave Bland said the train was traveling just over 50 mph when a bearing burned out of the wheel of one car. The result was that the wheel was pushed under the train car, causing it to jump the tracks.
The train car was dragged through Colchester, damaging the railroad crossings at Fulton, Coal and Henry streets. The stopped train also blocked all three crossings.
Later Tuesday morning the train was broken into sections and moved to the edge of town to clear the crossings. Workers from BNSF then spent much of the morning repairing them.
At about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday workers from an independent contractor arrived to repair the damaged car.
By 3 p.m. Tuesday all of the cars of the stopped train had been cleared except for the damaged car on the side track. All three Colchester railroad crossings had also reopened to traffic.