REESEVILLE, Wis. — A Canadian Pacific freight train jumped the rails in agricultural flatland midway between Milwaukee and LaCrosse. Twenty-two oil cars crumbled accordion-like. The two-person crew in the head-end locomotive was unhurt. The power units didn’t derail, nor did 74 other cars in the mile-long train. One person living nearby chose to evacuate but no populated area was threatened. Ruptured tank cars leaked crude oil along the roadbed. Environmental impact appeared slight. The federal rail safety agency tentatively blamed sun-kinked tracks that separated in the afternoon sun. Th accident was about 2 p.m. Temperatures were in the mid-80s. The accident was on a stretch of CP’s Winnipeg-Chicago mainline whose route includes Winona. The east-bond train earlier had passed through Winona. The maximum speed allowed for freights on Class A U.S. railroads is 70 mph, but the speed of this train when it derailed was not immediately reported. Amtrak’s Chicago-bound Empire Bulder passenger train and the Twin Cities-bound Borealis had cleared area in the previous hour. The U.S. max for passenger trains generally is 79 mph.
Blackened roadbed. Crude oil is a highly flammable but has a low flash point. There was no fire.
Derailment site
Reeseville, population 700, is 10 miles east of Columbus. This is 40 miles northeast of Madison although the route bypasses Madison. The derailment occurred in the same area as a July 2023 train wreck. That wreck also was blamed on track alignment. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt had asked Canadian Pacific at the time to reduce train speeds or to engineer trackage upgrades.