BURGESS, Mo. — No injuries were reported after a CPKC grain train was involved in a low-speed collision with a stationary train near the Kansas/Missouri state line on Friday morning (Jan. 30)
Missouri State Rep. Ann Kelley wrote in a Facebook post that the collision occurred about 8:30 a.m. Friday in a rural area north of Burgess, an unincorporated community across the state line from Mulberry, Kan.
One locomotive and a hopper derailed on the grain train, as did two tank cars on the stationary train. Those tank cars were carrying a form of bitumen that is similar to asphalt and is not a hazardous material, Kelley wrote. She said that CPKC, the Missouri Department of Transportation, and the Federal Railroad Administration were working together to address the incident.
KOAM-TV reports CPKC contractors were on the scene beginning cleanup as of Friday afternoon. The station has photos of the incident on its website.
Mulberry is about 118 miles south of Kansas City on CPKC’s Pittsburg subdivision, and about 36 miles north of Joplin, Mo.
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Looking at the photos, it seems like the “low speed” description is pretty relative. In my mind I think low speed impact is some busted-up draft gear, maybe fold-up the corner of a car, not fold a loaded grain hopper in half.
Is this a signaled or dark line? If signaled, sounds like the following train was moving too fast to stop in time. Had it passed a red signal and expected traffic ahead, or passed one simply without slowing and then spotted the train ahead too close to fully stop? If non-signaled, what train orders was the following train operating under?
I am a retired KCS dispatcher who used to dispatch this territory. The line is CTC, but Mulberry siding is not circuited. So the second train would have received a restricting signal to enter the siding which requires the train to operate at restricted speed. That rule requires a maximum speed of 20 mph with the train being able to stop within one half the range of vision. So in this case the train crew appears to have violated the restricted speed rule.
And as always, the cause of the derailment is under investigation.