Freight train derails near Elgin, closes down Metra service
By Dave Gathman dgathman@stmedianetwork.com November 3, 2011 6:52AM
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Updated: December 6, 2011 8:08AM
BARTLETT — Except for a limited bus-shuttle connection, Metra rail service to Elgin will remain out of commission until at least Friday morning after a fiery freight-train wreck on an intersecting line totally blocked the commuter service’s Milwaukee West Line before dawn Thursday. And because most locomotives and cars devoted to the Milwaukee West Line remained trapped in Elgin, on the far side of the wreck, even passenger service between Bartlett and Chicago was expected to be minimal until at least Friday.
CN Railway spokesman Patrick Waldron said 22 cars of a northbound CN freight derailed and three caught fire near Lambert Lane and Spaulding Road, in an unincorporated area along the Elgin-Bartlett border. The derailment occurred about 5 a.m. No one was injured and there was no known damage to any buildings. The derailment occurred on a north-south CN rail line (the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern line) where it crosses the east-west Milwaukee West commuter line. Once an independent unincorporated town known as “Spaulding” that was a commuter-train stop itself 30 years ago, the area now includes auto scrap yards, other industrial buildings, a gravel quarry and an Ameren Energy “peaker” power-generating plant with storage tanks for fuel oil. “Interlocking” tracks at Spaulding allow trains to move between the two railroads, and both lines have small rail yards where freight cars are stored on sidings while waiting to be transferred.
Waldron said Thursday afternoon that railroad officials are not sure what caused the derailment. But the area includes many switches connecting the various sidings and interlocking tracks to each other.
Almost all commuter trains used on the Milwaukee West Line are stored overnight in downtown Elgin, so the wreck cut them off from being used anywhere between Spaulding and Chicago. Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said two train sets were east of Elgin at the time of the wreck and were offering limited service through the day Thursday, shuttling back and forth between Bartlett and Chicago Union Station. Metra also arranged for buses to carry passengers between Bartlett and the Elgin stations and for some trains from other lines to fill in on the Milwaukee West Line during the Thursday-night rush hour.
But this handful of equipment east of the wreck falls short of enough capacity to serve the thousands of riders who normally use the Milwaukee West Line, so Gillis urged Elgin-area commuters to consider the Union Pacific West Line (Geneva to Chicago) or Union Pacific Northwest Line (Crystal Lake to Chicago) as alternatives, or to drive themselves to Bartlett if possible. “Inbound trains will not wait for the arrival of the bus” between Elgin and Bartlett, Metra’s website warned. “Passengers may experience lengthy wait times up to two hours.”
Gillis said commuters should consult www.metrarail.com to see what level of service will be available Thursday evening and Friday. He said much will depend on how fast workers can remove the 22 wrecked freight cars, and on how much damage to the Metra tracks will be revealed when the wreckage is moved aside.
Firefighters and police from Bartlett, Elgin and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene all day. Elgin police spokeswoman Sue Olafson said the first indication of an emergency came at 5:09 a.m., when someone called the Elgin 911 center to report that one of the industrial businesses in the Spaulding area seemed to be on fire. Elgin firefighters responded but soon realized it was a wrecked train that was burning.
Bartlett Police Sgt. Geoffrey Pretkelis said none of the three cars that caught fire contained hazardous materials. One was empty and the other two contained scrap metal and fiberboard, he said.
Waldron said two of the derailed cars did contain hazardous materials — strongly alkaline sodium hydroxide (also known as lye) and the industrial chemical ferric sulfate. But these cars were not leaking, did not burn and pose no danger, he said.
Eight hours after the crash, smoke could still be seen rising from the disabled train. But Pretkelis said a locomotive had pulled 90 of the freight cars southward by then, away from the derailed part of the train.
No nearby businesses or homes were evacuated. But two roads remained shut off Thursday afternoon — Spaulding Road between Rose Lane and Gifford Road, and Lambert Lane between Spaulding Road and Versailles Drive.
The usually bustling National Street commuter parking lot in Elgin looked deserted at 8 a.m. while sidings in the Metra coachyard between National and Chicago streets remained filled with empty trains.
“I take the train every morning to my job in a warehouse in Wood Dale,” a frustrated commuter named Joe said. “But when I got here, there was just a P.A. announcement that there had been a train wreck and there would be no service from Elgin. I’ll have to call a guy who works with me and lives in Elgin, to see if I can hitch a ride in his car.”
Another marooned commuter, who rides Metra to classes at DePaul University in Chicago, welcomed the accident as a chance to take a day off from school.
Waldron didn’t know how many total cars were on the train or where it was going to and from. CN uses the former EJ&E route to shuttle freight trains around the outside of the congested Chicago area, connecting such other CN-owned routes as the Grand Trunk Western line to Michigan, the former Illinois Central line to New Orleans, the former Illinois Central line to Iowa (via Plato Center and Burlington), and the former Wisconsin Central line to Wisconsin and western Canada.
The Canadian Pacific Railway also uses the Metra line to carry several of its freight trains per day from its Kansas City/Omaha line to its yard in Bensenville.
Just before 7 a.m., Elgin School District U46 emailed its families and employees there would be “significant delays in transportation” Thursday morning because of the derailment. U46 serves both Elgin and Bartlett.
In that message, U46 Safety Coordinator John Heiderscheidt said he had been in contact with local police and fire departments. Buses and other traffic could be delayed, but schools would work to get late students to class as soon as possible, Heiderscheidt said.
Otherwise, according to U46 spokesman Tony Sanders, “All schools are open. It didn’t affect us in any way other than delaying some buses.”
Staff writer Emily McFarlan contributed to this story.
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