A Union Pacific Railroad train derailed just after 10 a.m. Wednesday near Highway 65 between Des Moines and Carlisle, sending several coal cars off the tracks. Cleanup crews moved in quickly to begin clearing the wreckage, and officials say no one was hurt.
The derailment happened near the Highway 65 bridge in Polk County, according to KCCI, which reported that several coal cars ended up off the tracks. Drone footage from the station showed cleanup crews already working to clear the scene shortly after the derailment occurred.
Despite the scattered coal cars, the incident does not appear to have disrupted travel in the area. No roads were blocked near the derailment, and no injuries have been reported, the station said.
No Hazmat Concerns, Sheriff's Office Says
A Polk County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the station there were no concerns about hazardous materials tied to Wednesday's derailment. The cause of the derailment has not been established, and no timeline for completing cleanup or reopening the affected stretch of track has been released.
A History of Derailments Along This Corridor
This is not the first time a Union Pacific train has gone off the rails in the Carlisle area. An earlier derailment near Carlisle saw about 20 railcars come off the tracks, with some launched down a hillside beside Highway 5, the station reported at the time. That incident required a sizable, multi-day cleanup effort that included removing the railcars and their contents and ultimately rebuilding that stretch of track.
Coverage of that earlier Carlisle-area incident from Trains.com noted that the adjacent State Route 5 was temporarily closed and that cleanup work continued through the following weekend.
Train derailments and their causes are tracked nationally through datasets maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration, which publishes reports on train accidents, highway-rail crossing incidents and related casualty data. For now, officials in Polk County have offered no further details on what caused Wednesday's derailment or how long cleanup near Highway 65 is expected to take.
