DISASTER Union Pacific train derails near Goose Lake (Albert Lea, MN)

[TammyinWI]

By Sarah Stultz Email the author
Published 5:40 pm Saturday, May 15, 2021

Part of a Union Pacific Railroad train derailed Saturday afternoon behind Eastgate Road near Goose Lake in Albert Lea.

According to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, about 20 cars derailed on the southbound train.

The derailment was reported to authorities at about 1:30 p.m. in the wetland area near Goose Lake. No injuries were reported.

Albert Lea Fire Department Capt. Dennis Glassel said most of the derailed cars were empty but some carried liquid petroleum, potash, lumber and hydrochloric acid.

The Police Department said on its Facebook page there is “nothing airborne” at this time, although teams are searching the area. Police said a precautionary shelter-in-place order was in effect for nearby homes.

A chemical assessment team from Rochester was on the scene, along with the Albert Lea Fire Department, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Albert Lea Police Department and the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office.

Glassel said the east portion of Eastgate Road is closed to give access to emergency personnel, but no other streets are affected.

Authorities have said there is no immediate harm to the public in the area. They are asking people to stay out of the area to allow access for crews.

Union Pacific crews and contractors are onsite and will be working to clear the line.

Look to the Tribune for more information as it becomes available.



Union Pacific train derails near Goose Lake - Albert Lea Tribune

Hazmat team responds to hydrochloric acid leak after 50-car train derails in Albert Lea, Minnesota (VIDEO)
16 May, 2021 02:48 / Updated 8 hours ago

Nick Streiff
@nickstreiff
UPDATE: Officials with Union Pacific confirm to @WCCO that two of the derailed cars are leaking hydrochloric acid. They say they are "working with emergency responders to determine a response plan."

Union Pacific said they were “working with emergency responders to determine a response plan,” according to WCCO reporter Nick Streiff, but the scale of the leak was unclear.

Hydrochloric acid is a strong corrosive substance used as a laboratory reagent. The short-term effects of inhalation can include irritation to the nose, eyes, and respiratory tract.

Hazmat team responds to hydrochloric acid leak after 50-car train derails in Albert Lea, Minnesota (VIDEO)

A Union Pacific cargo train carrying mixed commodities has derailed in Minnesota, leaving dozens of cars piled up on top of one another – some leaking hydrochloric acid – with a hazardous materials team responding to the incident.

www.rt.com

More pics and video, at links.

 

[Red Baron]

Those train tracks are seriously torn up.

 

[Millwright]

Those train tracks are seriously torn up.

and there is a zillion dollars worth of lumber there.

They'll have to guard it like a gold shipment.

 

[SSTemplar]

Proper kind of protest.

 

[WalknTrot]

Right next to the lake in a danged bog.
YaY.

 

[Millwright]

Short video at link.

Hazmat team responds to hydrochloric acid leak after 50-car train derails in Albert Lea, Minnesota (VIDEO)

A Union Pacific cargo train carrying mixed commodities has derailed in Minnesota, leaving dozens of cars piled up on top of one another – some leaking hydrochloric acid – with a hazardous materials team responding to the incident.

www.rt.com

 

[Red Baron]

Right next to the lake in a danged bog.
YaY.

I wonder if the ground was saturated beneath the rails?

Looks rather henky . . .

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

and there is a zillion dollars worth of lumber there.

They'll have to guard it like a gold shipment.

That was my first thought as well.

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

Right next to the lake in a danged bog.
YaY.

A bog? C'mon, this is Minnesota. If you build a house next to that your real estate taxes will fall into the "lake front" category.

 

[WalknTrot]

I wonder if the ground was saturated beneath the rails?

Looks rather henky . . .

There's no bottom to those things, and a lot of tracks run through boggy spots like this throughout the state - wasteland more or less not good for anything else. It takes constant monitoring to make sure the tracks are safe.
Somebody "oopsed".

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

I wonder if the ground was saturated beneath the rails?

Looks rather henky . . .

If they build the track bed anything like they do the roads around here, then yes ... it probably did get saturated. Many of the back roads near me are built over spans of swamp marsh and you can tell they never bothered to dig them out all the way down to the sand base. Instead, just plop of gravel on the swamp, pack it down and pave it, and call it a road. The damned things never last more than three years before they have to fill the sunken spots and resurface them. I guess the mindset is "we can't afford to do it right, but we will be able to afford to fix it every three years.".

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

There's no bottom to those things

Sure there is. You just have to dig down till you hit sand. Now, if you run across a mile wide marsh, it may have been a 90' deep lake at one time that filled, but a few core samples will tell you that. A 20 foot trench requirement, on the other hand, to hit bottom isn't that much work with a drag line, and if you handle it right, you put a pulverizer on site and what you sell the black dirt for will help balance the cost.

I suspect a lot of planners know this, but take the quick approach knowing the future repairs will help drive the local economy. Keep those tax dollars flowing in circles, which is OK except for the transportation interruptions it causes.

 

[WalknTrot]

If they build the track bed anything like they do the roads around here, then yes ... it probably did get saturated. Many of the back roads near me are built over spans of swamp marsh and you can tell they never bothered to dig them out all the way down to the sand base. Instead, just plop of gravel on the swamp, pack it down and pave it, and call it a road. The damned things never last more than three years before they have to fill the sunken spots and resurface them. I guess the mindset is "we can't afford to do it right, but we will be able to afford to fix it every three years.".

I still have old corduroy road (wooden timbers) popping up every once in a while on the gravel road running past my place. They were probably placed over the boggy parts 130-140 years ago, and still are making up "the bottom".

I always figure they must have been super tight grained old growth to last that long, but that's how it was done...and still sorta is...in theory anyway. Float the roadbed (or railbed) on top and hope for the best.


A random example:

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

I still have old corduroy road (wooden timbers) popping up every once in a while on the gravel road running past my place. They were probably placed over the boggy parts 130-140 years ago, and still are making up "the bottom".

I always figure they must have been super tight grained old growth to last that long, but that's how it was done...and still sorta is...in theory anyway. Float the roadbed (or railbed) on top and hope for the best.


A random example:

I suspect that's exactly what they did given that it probably wasn't affordable (or even possible) to haul in a drag line way back in the day. But that they keep doing the equivalent today tells me it's an economy thing. Look at it this way: if all road repairs produced perfect roads that would never again require repair, the unemployment lines would grow and you'd have a lot of heavy equipment rusting somewhere in junkyards.

 

[WalknTrot]

I suspect that's exactly what they did given that it probably wasn't affordable (or even possible) to haul in a drag line way back in the day. But that they keep doing the equivalent today tells me it's an economy thing. Look at it this way: if all road repairs produced perfect roads that would never again require repair, the unemployment lines would grow and you'd have a lot of heavy equipment rusting somewhere in junkyards.

Things might change if we ever had real passenger runs again (discounting the East Coast), but as it is, for freight, what's a few derailments? Seems that's pretty much the attitude. Track condition in the heartland skates on real thin ice, and nobody really cares.

 

[Doughboy42]

Yeah, Joe, let's cancel more pipelines.

 

[TammyinWI]

LOL. Now I was reminded of the "legend" of the Bibon swamp train that evidently had sunk into a bog many decades ago, and the stories of how it is haunted in that area. Maybe it was a story drummed up and told at some of the local watering holes, IDK.

They redo highway 63 through Bibon and it gets a little rollercoaster-ish in spots, did a search, ooof, glad I never drove over it when it looked like that:


Bayfield County, WI Highway 63

Bibon Swamp, photo by Ryan Brady

 

[WalknTrot]

Up north here - Wisconsin/Minnesota, a lot of the old spur logging rail lines were only used in the winter on frozen ground. Active for maybe a couple years and then the logging camp moved. That was back late 1800's - ish. You can still find the old trackbeds sometimes stumbling across them in the woods, or some have been made into (usually very back) roads over the years. You can always tell them...straight, or very gentle curved, level and raised up on a slight but distinct gravel bed. Haha...with gaps where the worst of the swamps are. Brush and trees grown up in them, rails and ties are gone, and bridges/trestles are gone. We also have stories about abandoned steam engines in swamps up here. At the end of the trail/abandoned grade is usually remnants of an old camp - not much left but the dump...if you are lucky.

 

[JBR]

A train derailed at Sibley Iowa today as well. 2 in one day is suspect….https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.keloland.com/news/local-news/developing-train-derailment-near-sibley-iowa/amp/

 

[TammyinWI]

I saw that thread, and "sabotage?" came to mind.

 

[skwentnaflyer]

UP doesn't need anyone to sabotage anything, they're doing it to themselves with lack of maintenance.

 

[FaithfulSkeptic]

Up north here - Wisconsin/Minnesota, a lot of the old spur logging rail lines were only used in the winter on frozen ground. Active for maybe a couple years and then the logging camp moved. That was back late 1800's - ish. You can still find the old trackbeds sometimes stumbling across them in the woods, or some have been made into (usually very back) roads over the years. You can always tell them...straight, or very gentle curved, level and raised up on a slight but distinct gravel bed. Haha...with gaps where the worst of the swamps are. Brush and trees grown up in them, rails and ties are gone, and bridges/trestles are gone. We also have stories about abandoned steam engines in swamps up here. At the end of the trail/abandoned grade is usually remnants of an old camp - not much left but the dump...if you are lucky.

Logging was a big part of the economy in northwest WI in the late 1800s. Some of the small rivers of today were damned and flooded back then to carry the logs. Several years back we ran across age-old signs of such in the middle of a lake. Looking into it painted the landscape of back then completely different than what we see today.