Cracked rail believed to have caused derailment
December 28th, 2006
S.W. Vac of Willmar was used to help salvage the distillers dried grain that tipped into the railroad right-of-way after a four-car derailment Thursday east of Green Isle. This is the first significant derailment since Minnesota Prairie Line began operating the 94-mile railline from Norwood to Hanley Falls. The derailment was caused by a hidden, undetectable defect in a rail, according to Mark Wegner of the Minnesota Prairie Line.
A hidden defect in a rail caused four rail cars on the Minnesota Prairie Line to derail east of Green Isle Thursday afternoon.
Mark Wegner of the Minnesota Prairie Line said that the four cars contained distiller’s dried grain from Heartland Corn Products in Winthrop. The product will be salvaged, but the derailment was not expected to get cleaned up until Dec. 26, Wegner said Friday. The icy conditions and the temperature may have also been a factor in the derailment, he said.
Derailments may happen from time to time, Wegner said, and the Minnesota Prairie Line is traveling at a 10 mph speed because most of the rail is 80 lb. and considered light by today’s standards. Funding is being secured to upgrade portions of the line to 115 lb. rail, he said. The Minnesota Valley Regional Rail Authority, which owns the rail line from Norwood to Hanley Falls, has secured $1.5 million from the federal government that will be used toward a rail replacement project next year.
No one was injured in the derailment, Wegner said. “It was a veteran crew operating the train,” he said. The rail had hidden, internal cracks that could not be detected, he said. The Minnesota Prairie Line takes precautions to try to prevent derailments, according to Wegner.
Wegner explained that in the future, when ethanol cars are hauled on the rail line, the ethanol cars are designed so if they tip over, they won’t puncture. “We are cognizant of the nature of ethanol,” he said.
Minnesota Prairie Line has been operating the 94 mile rail line since October 2002. This is the railroad’s only significant derailment in that time, Wegner said.
