WSOR derailment

At about 0330 (central time) today (2/16) about 13 cars of a WSOR train derailed in Rock county near Edgerton WI. This is on the main line between Madison and Janesville. No injuries. Derailed cars include lumber, coal and butter. About 400' of rail to be replaced. Track to be restored this weekend. Cause unknown. Train was going about 24 mph and the engines apparently detached from the lead car. As the cars caught up to the loco's, the first 13 derailed. Investigation continues to determine exact cause (mechanical failure, operator error, vandalism...)
Various local news stations have some info on their web sites. (WKOW, NBC 15)

Nukengineer wrote:Train was going about 24 mph and the engines apparently detached from the lead car. As the cars caught up to the loco's, the first 13 derailed.

I was the conductor on that train. The county sheriff's department in their unauthorized press release misrepresented a statement made by the engineer and now every news story is claiming the derailment was caused by the locomotives separating from the train. The cause is still under investigation and I will not speculate, but the derailment was definitely not caused by train separation.

Panel track has been laid and salvage/scrapping efforts are underway.

I thought it was something like that. WKOW initially had the seperation comment on their website in the AM, but had changed the story by the evening news. The state journal however, still printed the seperation story.

That must have been quite the surprise at 0330 (or anytime for that matter).