(The following article by Erin Adamson and Tim Richardson was posted on the Capital-Journal website on December 19.)
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Union Pacific Railroad tracks in northeast Kansas were expected to be humming today as the company moves trains that were stranded along its lines when a coal train derailed Wednesday night in Lawrence.
Work crews pulled up and replaced about 600 feet of track Thursday after 14 coal cars derailed and piled up near a grain elevator about a block from the restored Union Pacific depot and visitors center in North Lawrence. A total of 16 cars left the rails, but two didn’t fall over. The train of 138 coal cars was traveling at 37 mph when the the cars left the track.
Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb., said about 70 trains travel through Lawrence and Topeka each day on Union Pacific tracks.
“It’s an important corridor that links the Midwest and coal trains from Wyoming to the southern and eastern corridors,” he said.
Davis said trains were detoured to other routes, such as north through Marysville and south through Hiawatha, or through Des Moines, Iowa. Other trains were being held until the track was repaired, some sitting on track that stretches between Topeka and Lawrence.
“There will be an increase in train traffic in the area for about a day,” Davis said.
The main track and an adjacent side track were damaged in the derailment, but no injuries were reported. Davis said crews had one of the tracks repaired and opened by 3 p.m. Thursday.
Owen Cox, a waiter at La Tropicana restaurant across the street from the derailment, said he was at the front register when he saw a train moving slowly and then tipping off the track.
“It looked like it had just fallen of the track in front of the restaurant and behind it was kind of crumpled up like an accordion,” he said.
Cox said dust and debris flew up in the air, but the derailment wasn’t very loud.
Mike Scroggins, UP assistant vice president of operations for the area, oversaw the cleanup Thursday morning and said it wasn’t apparent what had caused the cars to derail — particularly because that section of track was replaced this year.
Davis said possible causes for a derailment included human error, failure of parts of the train or tracks, weather conditions or a combination of those factors.
Scroggins said UP crews began replacing the damaged track Thursday morning after the last of the derailed cars, which loaded weighed 286 tons each, were cleared from the tracks.
Crews worked throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning using heavy equipment to lift the rail cars before cutting up the metal to be hauled away on flat-bed trucks, Scroggins said. Crews used backhoes to scoop the coal from the ground.
The eastbound train originated in southeast Wyoming and was traveling southeast to the Kansas City area before heading south to Texas.