(The following appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on January 20, 2009.)
CHICAGO — The engineer and the conductor of a freight train were not injured when 14 cars and the locomotive they were inside derailed late Monday on the Northwest Side.
At 11:40 p.m., 14 cars and the locomotive of Canadian Pacific freight train No. 242-19 derailed near the area of North Cicero and West Grand avenues, according to CP spokesman Mike Lovecchio.
Police News Affairs Officer David Banks said the derailment occurred in the 4600 block of West Grand Avenue.
Lovecchio said there were no leaks of any kind and the train — which had left the CP rail yard in Bensenville and was bound for Toronto in Ontario, Canada — was not hauling any hazardous materials.
The only people aboard the train were the conductor and the engineer, who were both in the locomotive. They were not injured, he said.
An unidentified number of cars in the 2,500-foot long train were left standing and No. 242-19 is considered a “general merchandise’’ train that may have been carrying grains in addition to the general cargo, according to Lovecchio.
The train was traveling on tracks owned by the Belt Railway, which will lead the recovery effort in up-righting the trains as well as the investigation.
“The recovery crews are already on the scene and getting work underway,” according to Lovecchio, who said at 3:15 a.m. that is was unknown how fast the train was traveling or why it derailed.
“I can tell you that certainly when Canadian Pacific investigates a derailment we don’t rule anything out and [extreme] weather can be a factor, but in this specific case the investigation will be led by the Belt Railway,’’ Lovecchio said.
The train was not carrying passengers or hazardous materials and no injuries were reported, Grand Central District police confirmed.
Grand Avenue in both directions will be closed down to traffic “for a while” due to the accident, according to David Banks about 2:15 a.m.