Western Railroad Discussion > Broken wheel caused derailment on the GSR in Kansas

There was a 13 car derailment on the UP Golden State Route in McPherson, KS on Sunday, which included a few cars of denatured alcohol.  UP website showed a 72 hour delay thru there.   Haven't seen a ton of national coverage.  Maybe Palestine is starting to fade already. 

 https://www.sunherald.com/news/business/article273102720.html

memphisfreight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was a 13 car derailment on the UP Golden
> State Route in McPherson, KS on Sunday, which
> included a few cars of denatured alcohol.  UP
> website showed a 72 hour delay thru there. 
>  Haven't seen a ton of national coverage.  Maybe
> Palestine is starting to fade already. 
>
>  https://www.sunherald.com/news/business/article2
> 73102720.html
Paywall

Well here we go guess just like those loose wheels that were supplier caused should have known about it will be the cry.  Wonder if the supplier of those loose wheel/axle assemblies is going to get tagged on them in the settlement?

That will probably depend on how long they had been in service.

My sources told me the following:  13 cars derailed just before 10 AM on Sunday morning (3/12).  Two tanks cars derailed and leaked a relatively small amount of denatured alcohol (ethanol with an agent added to make the ethanol poisonous to ingest).  R. J. Corman had 3 or 4 sideboom bulldozers on scene by 1 PM--presumably out of their yard at Wellington, Kansas.  The lack of media coverage is likely due to the site of the derailment.  It is entirely within the property (secured) of the CHS Oil Refinery at McPherson that is bisected by the UP mainline.  My source indicated that the derailment site is not visible from any publicly accessible location and that drone activity around the refinery is also frowned upon.  Immediately west of the facility is also the location of the general aviation airport for McPherson.  Also located within the refinery property perimeter is the diamond where the K&O Branch from Newton to the oil and gas facilities at Conway (west of McPherson) crosses the UP mainline.  Insofar as the local area was concerned, the whole thing was a non-event, save for the fact that the UP Main Street grade crossing north of the refinery was blocked by the un-derailed rear part of the train until late on Sunday night.  The train was a long manifest with DP located between halfway and 2/3's back in the train.  The derailment occurred some number of car lengths behind the DP.  The portion of the train ahead of the derailed cars was cut off, and proceeded westbound after 1 PM on Sunday.  As is usual, the track around the derailment site was taken out of service and, as far as my source has heard, will likely be put back in service by late this afternoon (Tues. 3/14).  My source told  me that Corman's equipment was likely to have left the scene this morning.  

I got no details on how, how much, and where traffic was being diverted.  One possibility was diverting trains over the Lost Springs Subdivision between Herington and Peabody on the BNSF, thence westward back to UP rails at Hutchinson.  Of course, the UP had other options of diverting traffic at Kansas City via other routes.  Finally, for railroad trivia buffs,  McPherson was once served by four different railroads:  The AT&SF, CRI&P, MP, and UP.  Remnants of all four remain in use, though only the UP and K&O now serve McPherson.

They sent ZG4CI and ZCIG4 via BNSF from KC to Vaughn since UP currently has zero crews qualfied on their trackage rights from KC to Hutchinson

Alcohols, N.O.S.  UN 1987.   otherwise known as denatured ethanol.  Ethanol is typically shipped as E-95 with 5% gasoline as a denaturing agent.  Pure Ethanol ships as Ethanol UN 1170.

Eng.Shadetree

UP has had several derailments in the past few days. Seems NS handed off the derailment torch to UP.

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Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR