LEXINGTON, Neb. — Trains are moving again through Lexington after a derailment Monday evening closed the rail line, the North Platte Telegraph reports.
Cleanup crews worked through the night Monday and all day Tuesday to clear a loaded coal train that derailed west of the city. Twenty-seven cars of the 136-car Union Pacific Railroad train derailed at 6:10 p.m. Monday.
The wreck closed all three main-line tracks for nearly 11 hours. About 19 trains were rerouted on other tracks, said railroad spokesman Mark Davis.
Three of Lexington’s crossings were also blocked: Airport Road, Adams Street and Madison Street. Another rural crossing to the west was damaged.
The north set of tracks were reopened at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Davis said.
However, it might take a month or so to clean up the wreckage and coal.
“It might be out there a while,” he said. “The job will be turned over to a scrap dealer. The coal might be sifted on site to purify it.”
Davis estimated as much as 2,700 tons of coal was spilled.
No cause has been determined.
However, witnesses said a hot wheel and bearing on a car near the middle of the train was apparently a factor.
Dale and Donna Holbein, who live and work north of the accident site, witnessed the derailment.
They had just walked into their home from across the yard where their awards and decoratives store is located. Dale Holbein went into another room, but Donna Holbein heard the wreck, then watched it out the window.
“I thought: that one sounds kind of funny,” she said. “I ran into the living room, and there it was kind of like an accordion. All of sudden it came apart. The rest of it kept going.”
Dale Holbein, a longtime member of the Lexington Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, said a hot axle and wheel were apparently a factor in the accident. The department extinguished several small grass fires along the line to the west for about three miles, he said.
Holbein said it was eerily quiet after the wreck. His first thought was that the cargo was not hazardous.
“At least we didn’t have to worry about some of the other cargo that comes through here,” he said.