(The following story by Ron Jensen appeared on The Register-Mail website on July 10.)
GALESBURG, Ill. — Untimely summer heat may have caused a rail to bend and throw 14 cars from a Union Pacific train off the track Saturday afternoon east of town, according to a spokesman for the railroad.
James Barnes, speaking by telephone from Omaha, Neb., said the official cause is “irregular track alignment,” adding, “Heat may have been a factor.”
Meanwhile, a representative from a federal railroad safety agency is on the scene, too, to conduct an investigation.
The cars left the track about 4 p.m. Saturday when the temperatures were in the low to mid-90s, spilling 100 containers of freight along the track about one-half mile east of Knox Highway 12.
Although the train heading from Chicago to California belonged to Union Pacific, the tracks belong to BNSF. Steve Forsberg, spokesman for BNSF in Kansas City, Mo., said both railroads will participate in the investigation.
Also taking at look at the accident is the Federal Railroad Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the agency in Washington, D.C. He said a representative from FRA was sent to the scene near Appleton and will eventually complete a report.
“It generally takes several months,” he said.
He said most derailments take place in the railyard at low speeds and cause little damage. When they occur outside the yard and have a high dollar damage amount, the FRA gets involved.
Much of the debris was cleared by Monday morning, but the site was still littered with some of the containers that spilled when the cars left the track. Sets of wheels separated from their cars were still scattered about the area.
Forsberg said BNSF has an outside contractor that responded to the derailment and had both tracks open by early Monday.
“That’s our lifeblood,” Forsberg said of keeping the rail lines open. “It’s the equivalent of an interstate freeway being closed. Or an airport.”
The freight that was dumped from the train may or may not be forwarded to its scheduled destination, Barnes said, depending on what it was. Each piece of cargo has parameters and guidelines regarding such a spill.
“We work with the customer to determine what’s the best way of handling the freight,” he said.
These are hard times for railroads. Floods in some states have damaged tracks and bridges and covered rail lines with water. Wildfires in other parts of the country are affecting rail transportation.
And the heat wave that has covered much of the U.S. has potential to misalign tracks.
“That’s one of the challenges of our industry,” Barnes said of the troubles. “Our manufacturing facility, as they say, is outdoors.”