(The Associated Press circulated the following story on March 27.)
CARROLL, Iowa — Union Pacific Railroad workers were clearing crumpled aluminum hopper cars and spilled coal Friday from a stretch of track where 22 cars derailed the night before.
No injuries were reported in the derailment, which occurred along a gravel road about two miles west of town. The cause was not yet known, said Mark Davis, railroad spokesman.
The derailment occurred on U.P.’s double-rail main line, damaging 1,300 feet of track on one line and 640 feet on the other. The line is U.P.’s main cross-country route, averaging 62 trains a day.
Davis said the railroad hoped to have at least one line reopened to trains Friday night.
The derailed cars, each capable of hauling 100 tons of coal, were part of a 125-unit eastbound freight train traveling from Wyoming to Clinton, Iowa, where the cargo was to power a coal-fired electric-generating plant, he said.
Thursday’s derailment occurred about two miles from the site of two other derailments last year.
On May 6, 2003, cars from two passing freight trains derailed, squirting tons of tomato paste and spilling new Cadillacs and other freight at the U.S. Highway 30 overpass. A defective connecting rod on a track switch was blamed.
On June 29, 2003, 10 cars containing soda ash, used in the manufacture of glass, left the tracks east of where the first incident occurred. The wreck was blamed on a faulty wheel bearing.
Davis said Union Pacific is as perplexed as the folks in the Carroll area are about three derailments occurring so near each other in less than a year.
“Until we know the cause of this one, a lot of this is coincidence,” he said. “We operate a lot of trains in the area. We need to find the cause so we can come in and work on preventing these.”