Western Railroad Discussion > Up Hutchinson derailment

What happened in Hutch? Autoracks all over..

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Uh?  Hutchinson where? What state?

Dick Ebright

https://www.kwch.com/2025/11/03/train-derailment-causes-closures-hutchinson/

HUtchinson, Kansas.  I wonder where it is in Hutch (which is what most locals informally call Hutchinson).  The UP Golden State Route bisects the whole town.

Pictures:
https://www.kake.com/home/train-derailment-prompts-highway-lane-closure-in-hutchinson/article_f7ebc3e9-3aa3-4644-ab3a-35ac610720c6.html

This looks to be on the north side of town, along K-61...assuming I have my bearings correct.

Yes this is on the NW side of town where the tracks follow along K-61 on the east side of the highway. It's elevated for a bit to go over 30th street. If the train were headed eastbound it would be headed to McPherson on its way to Herrington for crew change. This line is has the most daily traffic through the Hutchinson area.

         Believe this is the daily west bound auto rack stack train. about 10 auto racks derailed but standing upright and 5 or 6 went down the embankment. No idea yet what is held up behind it.

          Currently it may take 100 panels to rebuild the track there/

There is a long string of domestic doublestacks behind so I'd guess the ZG2LC, which often leaves Chicago with autoracks up front.  

^I believe that is correct.  The train was westbound.  I was through that area this afternoon.  Lots of R J Corman, Crane America, and other contract equipment working.  Numerous autoracks derailed, several on their sides--yes, loaded with new vehicles, looked to be mostly pickups and large SUVs.  Sideboom dozers, excavators and cranes had a lot of the autoracks either picked up, rerailed and removed, or pushed to the side when I was there.   Looked like only a few derailed cars left to get rerailed.  I would guess around 1/3 to 1/2 mile of track severely damaged.  Semis were unloading track panels east of the derailment, I don't know about west.  Also, two work trains westbound with track panels and ballast were in process of getting switched around in the McPherson yard (about 20 miles timetable east of the derailment) presumably to be properly set up to head west to the derailment site.  Understood from some other railfans that sidings all the way from Medora (just east of the derailment) all the way to Herington have trains on sidings, including a couple of long intermodal trains.  I heard some unconfirmed rumors of UP trains being diverted south on UP Lost Springs Sub from Herington to Peabody and then heading west on BNSF to Hutchinson, and back onto UP, but I have no way to personally confirm that as I was not heading that direction.

I won't speculate on the cause of the derailment.  It occurred on pretty much tangent track in an area where one local from Hutchinson said that he had lived near those tracks all of his 70+ years and never remembered any significant derailment occurring in the spot where this derailment occurred.  The area has (now had) large mature trees along the right-of-way along most of the derailment area--which bulldozers had to push out of the way to get to the derailed cars, so that would likely substantiate that resident's statement.  So far as anyone knows, there were no injuries and no hazmat issues at all, so that was good news.  From what I saw, the whole scene was quite orderly, not a lot of spectators, just a couple of law enforcement vehicles and one UP Special Agent on scene.  Biggest disruption was one lane of KS Hwy. 61 closed (4-lane highway at the derailment site) for all of the semis hauling heavy equipment, etc. to park at the derailment site.  The rerailing crews were likely quite happy as the weather was near perfect, about 60 degrees, with little wind--just a pleasant fall day.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/25 16:20 by WW.

The last derailment on Tehachapi was evidently caused by a BNSF train breaking a wheel and hooking
a guard rail which led to the UP train derailing into another stopped UP train. Point is, the more this stuff
happens the more we get amazed by the actual causes. If a train on a tangent doesn't derail because of
collision at a crossing you start looking for evidence of all those drive-by 1000 mile inspections which give 
a bad name to the term "lip service".

Out 

^There are a couple of defect detectors within just a few miles east of the derailment site, so some sort of equipment failure would likely have happened after the train went over those detectors.  

bmalonef45 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes this is on the NW side of town where the
> tracks follow along K-61 on the east side of the
> highway. It's elevated for a bit to go over 30th
> street. If the train were headed eastbound it
> would be headed to McPherson on its way to
> Herrington for crew change. This line is has the
> most daily traffic through the Hutchinson area.

You're mostly correct other than this portion of trackage is on the NE side of Hutchinson.  As for the NW side, the only trackage is that of the ex-AT&SF line aiming toward Great Bend, KS and it's moreso on the West side of Hutch.  Just hoping to stear any observers correctly!

To WW's coment, depends on the type of detector. Just a dragger will not always catch a broken wheel but the
units with sonic detection will. At any rate it'd be interesting to hear what actually did cause the wreck.

Out 

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The last derailment on Tehachapi was evidently
> caused by a BNSF train breaking a wheel and
> hooking
> a guard rail which led to the UP train derailing
> into another stopped UP train. Point is, the more
> this stuff
> happens the more we get amazed by the actual
> causes. If a train on a tangent doesn't derail
> because of
> collision at a crossing you start looking for
> evidence of all those drive-by 1000 mile
> inspections which give 
> a bad name to the term "lip service".
>
> Out 

I don't believe that safety inspections are required as part of the 1000 miler.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/25 03:31 by portlander.

I believe that BNSF does them, at least at Barstow.

Out 

I guess the crushers will be well-fed for a while.

Seems like we are getting these "what a mess" derailments somewhere in the country every few days.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess the crushers will be well-fed for a
> while.
>
> Seems like we are getting these "what a mess"
> derailments somewhere in the country every few
> days.

I don't know that there are a larger number of derailents today compared with what has occurred historically.  Certainly, though, there are a lot more people to see them, a lot more people to photgraph or video them, and a lot more online media to share information about them.  I'm reminded about how, for decades, Kansas was believed to be the tornado capital of the United States, until what is now Oklahoma was opened to widespread settlement, then Oklahoma was christened as the tornado capital.  There weren't suddenly more tornadoes in Oklahoma, just a lot more people there to witness them.

Just a guess, but was there a DPU laying down there in that mess?

Orient Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just a guess, but was there a DPU laying down
> there in that mess?
No, just autoracks.  Cars started derailing somewhere around 13 cars behind the lead locomotives according to what people saw at the derailment site.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/25 18:16 by WW.