Train Derails South of Downtown Wichita WICHITA, KS -- Derailed cars from a freight train crashed into the side of a foundry and another building Tuesday morning about two miles south of downtown. No one was injured. The Union Pacific train was headed from Fort Worth, Texas, to North Platte, Nebraska, when six of the train's 60 cars jumped the tracks around 11:30 in an area of the city that contains a mix of residential and industrial buildings, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the railroad. Five of the cars were empty, and a sixth contained plastic pellets used to make plastic products, Davis said. At least two of the cars hit a foundry that contains several furnaces that were filled with molten steel. One of those cars drove 15 feet into the foundry, coming within a foot of striking an electrical transformer, said Dan McClure, a battalion chief for the Wichita Fire Department. The foundry's furnaces had to be emptied before electricity to the building could be turned off and cleanup could begin. One car also hit a metal storage building. "It could have been a lot worse," McClure said. "There could have been people in the foundry where the car entered the building." McClure said the residents of a house located 20 to 30 feet away from the wreckage were relocated for the night. The cause of the derailment was under investigation. About eight trains a day travel over the stretch of tracks where the derailment occurred. Davis said the railroad expected to have the tracks cleared by late Tuesday or early Wednesday. - The Associated Press, The Wichita Eagle
