TWO HURT AS TRAIN JUMPS THE TRACKS

Two men were injured Saturday afternoon when a north-bound Burlington Northern train jumped the tracks near the Lone Star cement plant at 2524 S. Sprigg.

The three engines pulling the about 100-car train derailed along with seven cars, which piled together in a twisted pile of metal, rocks and mud.

Paul Buchheit, 43, of 308 Missouri Street in Scott City the train's conductor was found by authorities walking aside the wreckage. He was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital with what authorities called "minor" injuries.

"It appeared he was more shaken than anything," said Sgt. Carl Eakins of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

The train's engineer, W.R. Geiser, 28, of Dutchtown was also taken to Southeast Hospital with cuts on his arms and head. A spokesman at the hospital said both men were treated and released Saturday.

Eakins said the engineer reported the train derailed at the southern entrance to Lone Star after "running over some rocks" spread across the track.

Eakins said the grade crossing where the train derailed recently was repaired or "smoothed" by Howell Trucking Co. of Scott City, which has contracted to haul clay from the quarry.

The lead locomotive was pushed several hundred feet to Lone Star's main entrance, before it apparently went into a ditch, flipped around and came to a stop on its side facing southeast on the east side of the tracks.

A Lone Star employee said he saw the train pass the plant amid what looked like a "rooster tail of rocks all the way past the plant."

The second locomotive crossed Sprigg Street on the west side of the tracks before coming to a stop against the fence that runs along the rim of the Lone Star quarry.

A box car piled atop the third locomotive, which was pointed at a northwest angle, west of the tracks.

Four other box cars and two tanker cars also derailed and were strewn in a "zig-zag" pattern on both sides of the track.

When the lead locomotive veered into the ditch near the main Lone Star entrance, it apparently took the track with it, which, as one bystander described "was bent and twisted like bailing wire."

Personnel from the Cape Girardeau Police and Fire Departments and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department were on the scene, along with representatives of Union Electric, Burlington Northern and Lone Star.

"The fire department immediately contained some diesel fuel that had spilled from the locomotive that flipped on its side," Eakins said.

Authorities also were attempting to determine what type of material was inside the tanker cars, which apparently weren't leaking.

The accident knocked out electrical power for "15 or 20 minutes" in parts of the south end of town, Eakins said.

He said the lead locomotive apparently struck the base of a power line pole. "The impact caused a power surge at one of the Union Electric substations," Eakins added. "By the time UE got down here, the power was already back on."

Lee Bollinger, Burlington Northern track supervisor, said the railroad company planned to bring six, D-10 Caterpillar "sidewinders," and other equipment to clear the wreckage and repair the track.

Bollinger said he hoped the situation could be cleared sometime today, but guessed the line might remain closed at least until Monday.

He said the track speed limit south of Lone Star is 50 mph, but slows to 20 mph just north of the plant. "It was reducing speed when it derailed, but was probably going close to 50," Bollinger said.

Burlington Northern investigators were expected to be on the scene Saturday night and today.

South Sprigg Street, north of the viaduct and south of Southern Expressway, will remain closed to through traffic indefinitely, Eakins said.