R.G. Five
Accessing The Wreck
On Saturday night about 10:00 PM Oregon, IL Fire was dispatched to train derailment at Pines Rd. near Devil's Backbone. A string of empty sand cars being stored on the Mt. Morris branch line West of Gale Rd. rolled down hill and hit the derail on the north side of Pines Rd. The derail did its job and 17 of the 99 cars in the string derailed. The cars came to rest in a pile mostly north of Pines, a few cars did end up in the road way. Luckily no vehicles were passing at the time and no one was injured. The Mt. Morris line is operated by Illinois Railway (OmniTrax) and their officials arrived quickly to access the damage. Maggio's of Rockford started showing up with their parade of equipment and worked through the night and the majority of the next day righting cars and getting the road open. I am sure the heavy rain, high winds and rapidly dropping temperatures made job even harder.
Accessing The Wreck
On Saturday night about 10:00 PM Oregon, IL Fire was dispatched to train derailment at Pines Rd. near Devil's Backbone. A string of empty sand cars being stored on the Mt. Morris branch line West of Gale Rd. rolled down hill and hit the derail on the north side of Pines Rd. The derail did its job and 17 of the 99 cars in the string derailed. The cars came to rest in a pile mostly north of Pines, a few cars did end up in the road way. Luckily no vehicles were passing at the time and no one was injured. The Mt. Morris line is operated by Illinois Railway (OmniTrax) and their officials arrived quickly to access the damage. Maggio's of Rockford started showing up with their parade of equipment and worked through the night and the majority of the next day righting cars and getting the road open. I am sure the heavy rain, high winds and rapidly dropping temperatures made job even harder.