(The following story by Butch Heman appeared on the Daily Times Herald website on October 30.)
MAPLE RIVER JUNCTION, Iowa — Union Pacific Railroad crews working through the night following a 25-car derailment replaced 1,000 feet of damaged track and had both lines open by 10:20 this morning.
The first line was reopened at 5 a.m., according to UP spokesman Mark Davis.
The railroad says it’s still investigating why platform cars stacked two-high with cargo containers jumped the tracks between Koster Grain and a residence west of the Ivy Avenue crossing in this unincorporated village shortly after 7 Tuesday morning.
No injuries and no non-railroad property damages were reported.
An initial report from UP said 24 cars had derailed. The count was increased by one after cleanup operations began.
The eastbound 103-car intermodal train being pulled by three locomotives was loaded at Seattle, Wash. – its containers coming from trans-oceanic cargo ships – and was headed for UP’s Global 3 Intermodal Terminal outside Chicago, Ill., where the shipping containers were to be lifted onto semi trailers for shipment to various stores, said UP spokesman Gene Hinkle.
“The containers held all kinds of goods,” said Hinkle. “I’m not sure exactly what was in the cars that derailed at Maple River, but this time of year it’s typical for containers like that to have clothing, toys, electronics and other retail goods that are headed to stores for the Christmas shopping season.”
Tuesday’s wreck heavily damaged 700 feet of track on one line and 300 feet on the other.
Cars that left the tracks stacked and folded together like an accordion, said Hinkle, adding, “That just tore up the main lines.”
The railroad immediately dispatched its rail-maintenance and clean-up crews to the scene. Debris removal and track repairs were underway at mid-morning.
“The priority is to get everything out of the way so the track guys can get in and lay new track,” said Hinkle.
Cars that could be righted on the rails were pulled out. Some too damaged to roll had to be dragged east and set along the railroad right of way for later removal.
At least three containers split open in the wreck, exposing beer and bottled wine, among other boxed cargo.
The Carroll County Environmental Health Department is assisting in the investigation, as canned pineapple is among the cargo.
Solid Waste Management Commission director Mary Wittry said a contractor performing cleanup work notified her this morning that some of the Maple River debris will be brought to the Carroll County Landfill, adding. “but we have no idea how much.”
UP crews lay new track in prefabricated 40-foot sections.
“It’s a very choreographed operation,” Hinkle remarked of a derailment cleanup. “Those guys move very quickly and safely. It’s so important for us to keep the trains moving.”
The double track that traverses Carroll County is part of the UP’s primary east-west line, called the Overland Route, connecting Chicago, Ill., and Oakland, Calif. The Iowa portion averages 70 freight trains per day.
Hinkle said the UP was detouring Tuesday’s traffic through Kansas and Missouri.
It was the fifth Union Pacific derailment in the Carroll area since May 2003.
Hinkel says there’s nothing wrong with the UP lines running through Carroll County.
“There was no single contributing factor to the derailments you’ve had there,” he said.
Three of the derailments were caused by equipment problems: a faulty switch, a defective bearing in the wheel assembly of a freight car and a broken rail.
“We never want to have a derailment, of course,” said Hinkle. “But unfortunately, they do happen.
“That line is very important to the Union Pacific. We move a lot of goods through Nebraska and Iowa: coal, agricultural products, fresh vegetables and a lot of retail goods.”
Hinkle noted that the UP hopes to determine a cause of the Maple River derailment within several days.
UP is the largest railroad company in North America, operating on 32,200 miles of track in 23 states, including 1,439 miles in Iowa.