BNSF-TP&W Coal Train Derailment



Sunday afternoon, a BNSF Railway coal train being handled by a Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway crew, derailed two locomotive and two coal loads south of Bartonville.

Ironically, Union Pacific's ex-Peoria Terminal Co. line (Iowa Jct. to Hollis) is temporarily out of service due to poor track conditions. So trains (presumably the Keokuk Junction Railway's Mapleton-East Peoria transfers and TP&W's Kolbe Local as well) have been using the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Kickapoo Main between Iowa Junction and the Union Pacific connection, approximately three miles of Union Pacific mainline through the Sommer connection onto the Keokuk Junction Railway line. 

The train had already entered the UP mainline when the derailment occurred. The rear locomotives derailed before it cleared the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Kickapoo Main, tying up both lines. 

- David P. Jordan

Comments

  1. Mr. TowerDecember 9, 2019 at 11:48 AM

    Interesting. I caught this whole thing after it happened. I guess I am quite confused. I was told by my boss to go look at it after I got done with my regular job about midnight last night. It appears it was an empty as I couldn’t see the springs compressed on any of the cars, or any coal showing at the top of them. It appears to me that the lead unit picked the X-Over Switch point and with the wheels still rolling on the engines, it pushed the rails on the TZPR track, bunching them up into a sun kink looking curve, just beyond the X-Over. The knuckle on the South End of the second car behind the engines busted out and that’s why they were left with the engines. That is all I know for now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David P. JordanDecember 9, 2019 at 10:02 PM

      Train was loaded. Otherwise, a single unit would be on that end.

      Delete

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