(The following article by Tom Lundvall was posted on the Cedar Rapids Gazette website on September 20.)
VINTON, Iowa — Twelve cars on an Iowa Northern Railway train carrying corn from local elevators to Cedar Rapids derailed at about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday.
The derailment occurred approximately four miles southeast of Mount Auburn as the 58-car train crossed 22nd Avenue.
That portion of 22nd Avenue is a gravel road, so there was very little impact on local traffic.
No one was injured in the derailment, and the cause is still under investigation.
“Hopefully we will have the road reopened tonight,” said Bill MaGee, Assistant General Manager of Engineering and Mechanical at Iowa Northern Railroad.
“The big thing is to get the cars moved at this point. Actual scrapping of the cars will take a couple of days, once we have received approval to do so.”
Many of the cars in the derailment were torn open, spilling corn into a number of large piles.
Workers from R.J. Corman Derailment Services LLC were on hand this morning clearing the damaged cars from the tracks. R.J. Corman Derailment Services is part of the R. J. Corman Railroad Group, based in Nicholsville, Ky., and has a divisional office in Mason City.
The Iowa Northern Railway Co., a short line railroad, was formed in 1984 following the liquidation of assets of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Co. The 163-mile runs diagonally from north to southeast Iowa, from Manly to Cedar Rapids.
Late in 2005, the company reported it was moving more than 30,000 revenue-generating cars and that the average track speed was around 30 mph. The company also reported it had invested more than $1.3 million per year in bringing the line to a state of good repair. This included replacing the railway bed between Waterloo and Vinton.
Tuesday’s derailment occurred in a section of the railway that had already been upgraded.