(The following story by Klark Byrd appeared on the Sun Telegraph website on July 31, 2009.)
SIDNEY, Neb. — The cause of a wheat spilling four-car Union Pacific Railroad derailment on Thursday in a Sidney railyard remained under investigation Friday morning, railroad officials said.
Nebraska UP media contact Mark Davis said there were no injuries reported in the 6 p.m. derailment. Minimal track damage did not prevent mainline operations from continuing. UP trains continued to roll through Sidney Thursday night and throughout the day on Friday.
Davis said clean-up crews had been sent to the site of the derailment, and were working Friday to upright two of the cars that had fallen on their sides. Two other cars, one in front and one behind the sideways cars, were simply tipping up on one set of wheels on the track. The tipping cars had not leaked any wheat, but the two sideways cars had leaked their cargo from their roofs.
Davis said it was impossible to tell how much of the wheat had been damaged or lost until after clean-up crews vacuumed up the mess. The cars are capable of holding up to 3,500 bushels of wheat each.
The average test weight for bushels of wheat this year have been around 60 pounds. That average was told to The Sidney Sun-Telegraph in previous discussions with local grain elevators. That means each car could contain up to 210,000 pounds of wheat.
Davis said he didn’t know how much could be salvaged.
The derailment occurred near a major Sidney power line, and electric crews were out to assess any damage. City Manager Gary Person said Sidney didn’t lose any power with the derailment, but a problem like this near such a major power line could easily have caused more trouble.
The derailment took place near the intersection of Hickory Street and 11th Avenue.