Galesburg, Ill. (BNSF)

December 21, 2002

Early on December 21, a hump crew shoved over the hump to get some misroutes caught in the retarder. When they coupled on to the cars, they tore the knuckle out of a car farther back in the train. They backed up to resume humping, which widened the distance between the two groups of cars. The cars that were broken off on the hill followed the movement back, --slowly at first, but then quickly --increasing in speed to more than 25 mph. The RCO operators stopped their movement a distance back on the hump lead and the cars -- now speeding back -- struck the stopped cars. Seventeen cars of the movement derailed. Reportedly, 15 of the derailed cars were so severely damaged that they were going to be scrapped. The cars tumbled to both sides of the hump lead. The accident could have been much worse. On one side, the Quincy Main Line was fouled, which is used by Amtrak trains traveling at 60 mph. On the other side, an empty coal train was struck by flying cars, causing three cars in that train to derail. The track was out for about 24 hours.