Second train derailment spurs questions in Yorkville

• Reprints

Tipped over rail cars and damaged track are all that remain in the spot of a derailment on the Illinois Rail Net line just west of Poplar Drive in the River's Edge subdivision in Yorkville on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. | Steven Buyansky~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 27, 2012 9:54AM

YORKVILLE — A combination of issues may have caused this week’s derailment of an Illinois Railway freight train coming through town.

Johnny DeClue, a general manager for the railroad, told city officials the three main things the railroad is looking at are the tracks, the weather and the wet clay land under the tracks.

DeClue talked to Yorkville Police Deputy Chief Larry Hilt and said that any one of those factors, or any combination of them, could have been responsible for Monday night’s derailment of a half-dozen freight cars filled with silica sand.

After the initial derailment, another five came off the tracks. The train was bound from the Eola yard in Aurora to Ottawa.

It is the second derailment along the same track in the past 1½ years, and the situation left city officials with some questions.

“There has to be a reason these trains are derailing,” Mayor Gary Golinski wrote in an e-mail to The Beacon-News Wednesday. “Either they’re going too fast, or there’s a problem with the integrity of the tracks.”

Hilt said DeClue did not mention anything about how fast the trail was going.

“Speed never came out of his mouth. He didn’t mention it,” Hilt said.

Golinski said if the city does not get answers, officials will talk to the National Transportation Safety Board, or other appropriate regulatory agencies.

“Their track record of derailments in and around our city is unacceptable,” Golinski said. “While travelling through Yorkville, the safety of our residents had better be their top priority.”

No one was injured in this week’s derailment, but this one was even closer to homes than last year’s. It took place at a crossing area, cutting some residents off from their only way out of their subdivision.

Hilt said the railroad told him the tracks are visually inspected once or twice a week, and are X-rayed twice a year. Illinois Railway did not returned calls to The Beacon-News.