Union Pacific Crews Open Tracks After Weekend Derailment

Monday, February 7, 2011

Officials with Union Pacific reported Monday morning that both eastern and western rail lines in mid-Missouri were re-opened following a weekend derailment of coal cars.

However, the work to completely clean and repair the area where the derailment occurred will take several more days.

The derailment occurred around 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon on an eastbound 136 car train.

Union Pacific Spokesman Mark Davis said the final count of cars that went off the track was 50.

The derailment occurred about 35 miles east of Jefferson City, about nine miles west of Hermann.

Davis said one track was opened Sunday and the second didn't re-open until about 4:15 a.m. Monday.

Davis also said it could take a couple of weeks to complete clean up all the coal that was in the cars and repair track and switches that were damaged.

That's due to the remote location where the incident occurred as well as the snow which measured 16 inches in depth that crews had to go through to get to the site.

The cause for the derailment is still undetermined.

More like this story

tgotech 5 months, 1 week ago

TOXIC TRAIN SAFETY - A First Responders Petition caused The Chlorine Institute to conduct a five-month study comparing the safety of secondary containment to the chlorine “C”-Kit for chlorine tank cars. The study proved secondary containment to be, by far, the safest technology for containing and preventing releases of chlorine gas. To see secondary containment - search “CHLORTANKER.”

Please review our Policies and Procedures before registering or commenting

Or login with:

OpenID

News Tribune