(The following article by Tillie Fong appeated in the Rocky Mountain News on May 22.)
PLAINVIEW, Colo. — Railroad crews were cleaning up spilled coal and replacing tracks Wednesday after a part of an eastbound Union Pacific train derailed Tuesday night about 25 miles west of Denver.
No one was injured, but two locomotives of a westbound Union Pacific train that was waiting on a side track were damaged.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation.
Two crew members were on each train.
“There’s not a lot of room to work with,” said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, of the cleanup effort.
“This is a very narrow strip where the railroad is placed between a cliff and a sheer drop to Coal Creek.”
At 8:20 p.m. Tuesday, a Union Pacific train with six locomotives and 115 cars filled with coal was going east from the Arco west central coal field near Delta to Victoria, Texas.
One locomotive and 15 cars in the middle of the eastbound train derailed near Plainview, where another Union Pacific train, with three locomotives and 105 empty cars, was stopped on a side track.
The second train originated from East St. Louis, Ill., and was heading west to the Arco coal field.
It had stopped on a side track to let the first train pass on the main line.
Its two front locomotives were damaged by the derailment.
The incident closed down the line, known as the Moffat Tunnel subdivision, Tuesday night.
Sixteen trains, including two Amtrak trains, use the track every day.
Crews are hoping to reopen the line this morning after 300 feet of the side track and 200 feet of the main line are replaced, and the coal is picked up.