(The following appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on January 19, 2010.)
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — A broken axle was the cause of last week’s derailment involving two trains near Lake McConaughy, Union Pacific Railroad officials said Monday.
The derailment occurred Thursday night about 12 miles north of Ogallala.
According to U.P. spokesman Mark Davis, 35 of the 123 cars from a loaded coal train derailed. The train was headed from Wyoming to Kansas. A second train headed back to Wyoming on an adjacent track struck some of the derailed equipment.
Davis said that caused the wheels on the two lead locomotives of the second train to derail. However, those locomotives remained upright and none of the empty coal cars on the second train derailed.
On Monday, Davis said it had been determined that a broken axle in the area of the wheel bearing on one of the railcars was the cause of the accident. No one was injured.