A Canadian National train containing crude oil derailed in Plainfield, Illinois on Friday, June 30th 2017 at around 6:30 pm. The derailment happened near the intersection of Illinois route 59 and route 30. No injuries were reported, only one car was leaking oil and there was no fire.
I was watching raw video provided by the WGN News helicopter and found it interesting that there's a construction team putting a pipe in that goes under the railroad track. Also, the Chicago area has had a lot of rain lately. One closeup image from the helicopter footage appears to show several tank cars buried in mud several feet below the rail surface at the direct point where the pipe is, or is about to go under the CN track.
WGN link:
http://wgntv.com/2017/06/30/freight-train-carrying-crude-oil-derails-in-suburban-plainfield/
News story plus raw helicopter video
helicopter time stamps:
-25:01 (the clock on the video counts down) - Shows a wide view of the derailment and where the construction team is laying the pipe under the ROW.
@ -24:48 - Video zooms in and shows several cars that appear to have sunk the mud (?) several feet below the rail surface directly above where the construction team was excavating for the new pipe.
CC
Video interesting. Wonder if the pipeline construction undermined the RR track ?
I can't speak with authority about pipelines being laid beneath railways but perhaps Mud Chicken can enlighten us on the subject. I would not think digging beneath the tracks would be approved by the railroad as it would create problems with soil settling that only time could correct and would cause the railroads grief for an extended period, but boring, with a constantly moving outer casing supporting the bore would be the preferred process. Just enough earth is removed while doing so to permit movement of the casing which I believe to be pushed by hydraulic pressure, and the oil/gas pipeline would go through that casing. Some heavy duty equipment is required to accomplish that task. One such job was done near me a few years ago and CN suffered no service disruption nor did they have to do any track work subsequent to the pipe's protective casing being driven beneath the track.
Given the situation of the oil spill it seems fortunate it was only one or two cars. The ditches dug on either side of the track provided a reservoir for the oil to run into therefore making cleanup easier that if the spill had spread.
Norm
Chris30 only one car was leaking oil
That's a better statistic than most of our mall parking lots.
Chuck, you just won "Comeback of the Week" with that one!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
The war with CN (and railroads in general) and the pipeline industry will heat up again. Lots of questions need answered.
Pipe ramming or jack-and-bore operation gone wrong? No sign of the pipeline installation equipment needed to place casing and pipe. So many issues in play. Not a cut and cover operation, receiving pit is there. (fireworks to come?)
MP 10 Leithton Sub @ River Junction (EJ&E/ junction w/ Illinois River Subdivision ...aka "Walker" , the old interurban electric line R/W is just to the SW)
Pipeline folks insist this doesn't happen. Railroaders beg to differ. (if the pipeline bubbas failed to clear the license process with CN and started construction anyhow, this could get ugly really quick)
A few more details would help, but the newsworkers won't go there. The fixation by the newsworkers on the oil train is ignoring the cause of derailment. FRA and the railroad will make that call and not EPA.
Interesting how the news media goes deaf, dumb and blind when the the cause of the derailment isn't the railroad's fault. Newsworkers have been oddly silent.
I have only a tidbit to add. The day after the derailment, I heard scanner chatter here in NW Indiana on the CN between two crews and I only caught a portion of it.
One crew said there were "unauthorized personnel" on the property and that CN was unaware of the project. There was a comment made about several "tonnage trains" passing over the area without knowledge and there would be a big lawsuite which CN would not be a party of.
I couldnt put this info together ... but now it makes sense.
Ed
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.