Greetings all.. I doubt theres an Iowa Northern Board on here so I'll post to this board.. anyways.. Iowa northern Derailed 6 cars in Cedar Falls, IA today.. They were pushing a 30 car cut up the old Rock Island Main line from the IC interchange, and when going around the curve towards 5th street, they just kind of stopped.. Breakman radioed to the engineer.. "did we stop for any reason?"... Engineer responeded.. "I'm still shoving.. and we're not moving.. " Breakman got off and started walking the train.. got to the start of the curve.. and noticed a car leaned over a bit.. and got on the radio.. "Uh Ohh... Umm.. I think We're gonna be here a while.. " at which point I got on the truck and and made a mad dash down into town with cameras in hand.. Got down there to find 6 cars on the ground.. After swapping stories with the crew till Road formen and others could be called.. They got the Cedar Falls Utility Track mobele and started pulling the last 8 cars off the train 2 at a time though downtown.. and the head end pulled off the head 16, left 2 cars at Mc Donalds for cushion (when rerailing), and took the rest up to Shell Rock.. Repair will start on Monday.. due to lack of importance to get the line running.. it's a stub end industry lead.. So theres 6 coal hoppers sitting between houses and streets in Downtown Cedar Falls.. Locals living next to the tracks supplied coffie and cookies for the crew.. and railfans.. Police didn't show up till 3 hours after the accident.. (we had to go get them)... Then fire crews arrived an hour later with Road Crews to put up baricades and Road CLosed signs.. ... we asked if they needed us to set something on fire to give them something to do.. Everyone left around 5pm.. and well.. they'll be back monday.. Heres a link to a photo page.. Photos
well here's my professional derailmentexpert opinion, having had several under my belt . looks to me like the rail gauge spread allowing the cars to fall between, now that's just an opinion but i bet the crew is hoping that is the case as they can't be blamed!!!
Thanks for the info and photos. Sounds like it should be a "non-event". Like MOPAC3092, I hope the crew is not blamed.
