Here is a drone video of a train wreck that happened about 30 miles north of our town yesterday. What a mess. NOT my video. Just passing on the link.
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The gentleman (woman?) flying that drone must have heard it happen, grabbed their stuff and launched from a very close location. Note - the lack of first responders on scene has led me to that observation.
I was trying to discern if this was the tail end of a routinely long consist.
Happy to see, at least from the video, the crew and local residents were not directy involved. The irrigation creek is going to need some attention.
Paul
That's a mess and a half! I wonder what happened.
Excellent drone video. It appears that there are some UP locomotives adjacent to the grain elevators/ storage bins, visible when the camera pans to the right. They appear to be sandwiched between the derailed portion of the train and additional tank cars beyond these locomotives. Presumably, these are Distributed Power Units, and the head end units and the movable cars have been moved away.
Here is a current story:
@BillYo414 posted:That's a mess and a half! I wonder what happened.
Per the favorite words of the news media, "It jumped the track!".
@Hot Water posted:Per the favorite words of the news media, "It jumped the track!".
Right right haha 
magically, by itself no doubt!
Sure doesn't look like they were daisy pickin'!
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Looks like whatever was in the tank cars was flammable.
Pat
@jay jay posted:Here is a current story:
SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — An evacuation order remained in place Monday for part of a northwest Iowa town as firefighters worked to extinguish a burning train after a weekend derailment.
About 47 cars derailed Sunday afternoon near Sibley, including several cars that were carrying hazardous materials. The resulting fire created a thick plume of black smoke but no injuries were reported.
Sibley is a town of about 3,000 people roughly 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines. The west end of the town was evacuated after the derailment.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said the railroad's hazardous materials experts worked with first responders through the night to contain the blaze.
Tysver said several cars involved in the derailment were carrying hydrochloric acid, potassium hydroxide and asphalt. An empty tank car on the train had been carrying liquid ammonia nitrate.
The railroad said the cause of the derailment remains under investigation, but witnesses reported that a bridge had been damaged underneath the train.
Robin Eggink told the Des Moines Register that she and her husband noticed the train slowing down followed by a big cloud of smoke as they were eating at a Pizza Hut outside of Sibley on Sunday. The family drove near the site of the smoke and saw the train split in two on both sides of a bridge before firefighters ordered them out of the area, Eggink said.
Tysver said the bridge may have been damaged during the derailment but it did not collapse.
Excellent video! Looks like several grade crossings were blocked, which may have caused a delay for firefighters. As a long time chief, I am glad I don't have a RR through my town.... I can't help but think that the savings realized by running these insanely long freights are offset by the costs of these wrecks....
U.P. also had a major derailment Saturday near Albert Lea MN, it spilled some hydrochloric acid apparently. Albert Lea is only a few miles north of the Iowa-Minnesota border, and Sunday's wreck in Iowa was only a few miles south of the border, but the two are about 140 miles apart east-west.
