(The following story by Cait Purinton appeared on The Capital-Journal website on March 29.)
SILVER LAKE, Kan. — A freight train derailed when a bridge over Soldier Creek north of Silver Lake collapsed Sunday evening, spilling 36 rail cars and tons of coal into the creek.
A Union Pacific train toppled into the creek at about 6:30 p.m. at N.W. 70th and Valencia Road, about 4 1/2 miles north of Silver Lake and 12 miles northwest of Topeka. The train was en route from Wyoming to a utility company outside of St. Louis, said UP spokesman Mark Davis in Omaha.
Neither of the crewmen — an engineer and conductor — were injured, Davis said.
Sgt. Brad Metz, of the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office, said the engine carrying the crew cleared the West Grove Bridge before it collapsed and stopped near N.W. Hoch Road.
“It’s a mess,” Metz said. “It’s a bunch of train cars on top of each other. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The cause of the derailment wasn’t known late Sunday. Davis said the soggy ground caused by the weekend’s rainfall would be among the factors considered by investigators.
About eight rail cars piled on top of each other into the creek, mingled with the twisted metal of the bridge’s frame. The wheels of a car left on the tracks sunk into torn asphalt, and heaps of coal were scattered at the scene. A Topeka Police Department helicopter circled in the skies over the wreckage.
Hazardous materials teams were called to the scene to investigate any potential contamination. Capt. Skip Wilson, of the Silver Lake Fire Department, expressed relief that no hazardous spills were involved.
“There’s no body hurt, and there’s no hazardous materials,” he said. “This is the best of the worst.”
Wilson compared Sunday’s derailment to a train wreck in July 1997 when two UP trains carrying hazardous materials collided near Rossville. That crash forced authorities to evacuate Rossville residents.
“(The clean-up crews) are awesome to watch. We watched at Rossville, and that was something,” Wilson said. “Those cars were just laid out. Now, they’re stacked on top of each other.”
Randy Anderson, who lives near the wreckage, also remembers the crash in Rossville. He said Sunday that he is worried the crumpled train cars will dam the water.
“That bridge has been there for a long time,” Anderson said. “I’m concerned what kind of effect it will have on the creek where the water runs through.”
Onlookers driving to the scene were turned away by Rossville police officers. Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies also blocked intersections leading to the crash site.
UP crews bringing heavy equipment were to arrive late Sunday night to begin removing the train cars and coal from the creek and to start assessing the damage done to the bridge and track, Davis said.
The crews and equipment were to be brought in on flatbed trucks from Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, and work was to begin immediately. The construction-type equipment includes bulldozers and a sideboom, which resembles a bulldozer with a crane-like device on one side, Davis said.
He said late Sunday that he didn’t know how long it would take to remove the cars and coal from the creek. In the meantime, UP trains will be diverted to other UP tracks or tracks of other railroads, Davis said.
He said investigators would interview the crew, examine the damage done to the derailed cars and the destroyed bridge, and test the equipment on the cars that remained on the track. The locomotives weren’t part of the derailment.
Investigators also will review information from the locomotives’ event recorder, which is similar to the data stored in the black box on an aircraft, Davis said. The event recorder includes information about the speed of the train at the time of the incident and when the brakes were applied.
Agencies responding to the scene included Rossville Police Department, Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office, Topeka Fire Department technical rescue and hazardous materials teams, Topeka Police Department helicopter, Silver Lake Fire Department, American Red Cross, Kansas Highway Patrol, Auburn Fire Department, Shawnee County Emergency Management and American Medical Response.