(The following article by Brian Bonner was posted on the St. Paul Pioneer Press website on May 27.)
ST. Paul, Minn. — Once the runaway Union Pacific rail car got rolling in Rosemount, it didn’t stop for another nine miles — until it hit an unoccupied Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive in a South St. Paul rail yard.
The incident reportedly happened early Tuesday.
The car rolled through eight railroad crossings, triggering gates and alarms at the ones that had them, said John Bromley, director of public affairs for Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb.
“If it’s on a downgrade, it can roll quite a ways,” Bromley said. “That’s the whole basis of railroad technology. They’re free rollers if they get going.”
No one was injured, Bromley said. Three Canadian Pacific Railway crew members in South St. Paul had been alerted to the oncoming car and got out of the way before the collision. No derailment occurred, nothing spilled and property damage was minor, Bromley said.
Bromley said that, under the railroad’s protocols, the incident was not considered serious enough to alert local law enforcement agencies.
“I know there was some criticism that they (local police) were not notified,” Bromley said. “We did not know about it ourselves until after it hit the Canadian Pacific train.”
The Union Pacific car was carrying a nonhazardous lubricant for a Cenex manufacturing site in Rosemount.
Bromley said the railroad is investigating the wayward car incident. But a combination of failures appears possible, Bromley said. For some reason, a “derail device” failed to stop the car from rolling onto a main line, he said. Also, the brakes on the car either failed or were released, he said. And finally, some force had to set the car in motion, Bromley said.
Lani Jordan, spokeswoman for Inver Grove Heights-based CHS Inc., which owns the Cenex site, said, “We’re fortunate no one was injured, and the situation resolved the way it did.”