(The following story by Todd Shields appeared on the Northbrook Star website on November 1, 2009.)
CHICAGO — Under a full autumn moon, freight car trains lay splayed and crushed early Sunday night on both sides of Shermer Road in Northbrook near the Glenview border.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported after a 3 p.m. crash when two Canadian Pacific freight trains, heading northeast and southwest on a Union Pacific track, collided after one of the trains derailed. The crash occurred in a business and residential area around Shermer Road immediately south of Willow Road.
Northbrook Deputy Fire Chief Ron Schinleber said damaged train cars were bumped off the tracks on both sides of Shermer and were resting on the viaduct over the road as well.
Willie Wilson, an on-scene Canadian Pacific manager, said both trains were moving at impact when one of them derailed, but the crash was not head-on. The wreckage covered four blocks, he said. Wilson said the Canadian Pacific train was hauling wheat and clay. Wilson said both trains together comprised only 18 cars.
“We’re just lucky this wasn’t a hazardous material situation. It looks as if these train cars fell from the sky and scattered all over,” said Jim Richards, deputy fire chief for Northbrook Fire Department. Because the rail car contents were not hazardous and nearby homes and business owners were not evacuated, he said.
“Thank God it was only grain. This is really a big mess,” he said.
Traffic was moving in both directions on Willow Road at 6 p.m., but as of Sunday night, traffic was blocked on Shermer Road from Willow Road to West Lake Road in Glenview.
Outdoor propane tanks next to a dry cleaning business were about 10 yards away from the fallen cars that had tumbled off rails on the east side of Shermer, as hazardous material emergency trucks arrived to check the area.
A Mobil gasoline station was about 50 yards away from the accident scene on the southeast corner of Shermer and Willow roads. Employees there said they did not hear sounds of the accident.
Several electric utility poles were damaged, but local residents watching the scene said they still had electric power.
“It’s incredible no one was hurt,” said nearby resident Hope Sanborn.
Emergency officials were unsure if the rail viaduct over Sherman Road sustained damage. They also said cleaning and repairing the railroad stretch will take least three days.
Metra commuter rail services will not be affected, Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile said.
Northbrook police, Wilmette’s Hazardous Materials response team and the Glenview Fire Department are on the scene Sunday afternoon, officials said.