(The following article by Jason Kristufek was posted on the Ames Tribune website on June 16.)
AMES, Iowa — Part of a Union Pacific Railroad train derailed Saturday near the Dayton Avenue overpass sending thousands of bushels of corn to the ground.
Seven boxcars toward the rear of a 76-car train left the track when there was apparently trouble with a wheel on one of the boxcars.
The official cause of the accident is still under investigation, Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said this morning.
There were no injures. Union Pacific crews removed and repaired the damage. Both main tracks were reopened by 6:30 p.m.
The train experienced problems when it made the switch from the tracks that run south from Jewell to the main tracks that run east and west through Ames, Ames Police Lt. Mike Brennan said.
As the train moved eastbound through Ames, one of the wheels fell off a boxcar, damaging the track and several railroad crossings, police said in a released statement. The train eventually derailed near the Dayton Avenue overpass.
“We are looking at that as a possibility (for causing the accident), but we have not made a final determination,” Bromley said of the report that a wheel fell off.
Southbound lanes of the Duff Avenue crossing were closed due to the damaged crossing. The Clark Avenue and Kellogg Avenue crossings sustained minor damage but remained operational, Brennan said.
Bromley said a two-mile stretch of track sustained damage.
The train loaded with corn was heading from Gruver to Kansas City, Mo. Gruver is in Emmet County in northern Iowa just west of Estherville.
The train slowed to 10 miles per hour when it switched from the north-south tracks. Bromley said it picked up speed heading through Ames to about 30 miles per hour. He did not know the exact speed of the train at the time the derailment occurred.
“The crew first noticed the derailment when it went into emergency braking,” Bromley said. “If a train derails it will pull apart air hoses sending the train into emergency braking. That would be the first indication to the train crew that something had happened.”