My father called me from my hometown of Toluca IL to tell me that what he believes is about thirty cars of a stack train were blown over by a storm this morning just east of town, around milepost 109 on the ex- Santa Fe, between Streator and Chillicothe. He says they have quite a mess.
Correction: it happened around 2:00PM Sunday, a bad storm they call a microburst, he went in the basement of my grandparent’s house because of the storm. He also says it was a piggyback train, JB Hunt and Schneider trailers, some loaded, he said BNSF units were sitting there, but doesn’t know if they were the units pulling the train. It was on the north track so was likely a westbound. In Illinois there is a road every mile, my dad says the derailment spans the two roads east of town, so around one mile.
All I could find on the web:
http://newstrib.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=27&ArticleID=19154
Rgds IGN
My dad just saw four semis loaded with pack track go through town, 12:40PM Central.
Panel party!
I don’t know if it mattered, but the very spot where this train derailed is actually the highest spot on the old Santa Fe in Illinois.
Z-WSPALT9 Willow Springs to Alliance, Texas.