(The following story by Ann Depperschmidt appeared on the Denver Post website on May 17.)
DENVER, Colo. — Amtrak’s California Zephyr train took a Wyoming detour Friday and Saturday after a Union Pacific train derailed Thursday night near Granby.
It was the second derailment in Colorado in nine hours.
Fifteen cars toppled in the first derailment, which happened about 1 p.m. Thursday as a train crossed the South Platte River at Fox Street near Coors Field. No one was hurt. The cause is still under investigation, said Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. spokeswoman Lena Kent.
The wreck was cleaned up by 10 a.m. Friday, she said.
The second accident, which caused the Wyoming detour, occurred about 9:30 p.m. Thursday in Fraser Canyon about 3 miles east of Granby, derailing two engines and a rail car.
Officials said the coal train was struck by a rock slide, trapping two of the three employees aboard in an overturned locomotive. Neither was seriously injured.
About 300 people traveling either way between Denver and Salt Lake City on Amtrak had to detour through Wyoming, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. The Wyoming route is the original run the Zephyr took when it began in 1971 and is up to two hours faster than the current course. The route was changed to Colorado because people like the scenery, Magliari said.
The rock slide was about 80 feet long, with boulders the size of railroad cars, said Union Pacific Railroad spokesman John Bromley.
The engine leaked a small amount of fuel into the Fraser River. Union Pacific officials put up booms, devices used to sop up oil in water, to contain the spill, said Grand County Undersheriff Glen Trainor.
Train derailments in Colorado are not uncommon, said Kenton Forrest, Colorado Railroad Museum archivist.
Most of the time, a wheel slips off the track in the rail yard and rarely is anyone injured, said Warren Flatau, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration.
Last year, there were 34 derailments in Colorado, he said, but no injuries.
Sometimes, natural causes such as avalanches, rock slides and freezing temperatures can disrupt the train.
“In the wintertime, tracks can freeze or thaw and expand or contract,” Forrest said. “So the train comes around the corner and ca-chunk, there they go.”
While the cause for the Denver derailment is still under investigation, Forrest said there have been problems in the past because of a tight turn in that area.
“That’s a very sharp curve,” he said.