(The Associated Press circulated the following article on May 21.)
GOLDEN, Colo. — Crews worked Wednesday to remove 15 cars and a locomotive that derailed from a coal train and struck two idled freight locomotives on a siding.
Workers also were trying to repair the track.
The eastbound cars derailed Tuesday night on their way to Victoria, Texas, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb., which operated both trains. The cause was under investigation.
There were no injuries.
The collision blocked the east approach to the 6.2-mile-long Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide, about 20 miles to the west of Golden.
Freight trains and Amtrak’s California Zephyr were being diverted, but Davis did not know what route they would take or how long Amtrak might be delayed. Davis had no estimate on when the line would reopen.
”It’s very tight in that area. There’s a bluff on one side and a dropoff to the river below,” Davis said.
The moving train, whose 115 cars were loaded with coal, was eastbound when the cars derailed and struck the locomotives that had pulled into a siding with 105 empty coal cars, Davis said.
Each train had a two-person crew. The crew of the idled train was in the lead locomotive when it was hit, Davis said.