Update: UP train derails outside of Dixon, no injuries reported

DIXON – Investigators still are trying to determine the cause of a derailment that sent 39 Union Pacific Railroad cars tumbling off the tracks west of Dixon early Thursday morning, spilling some of their contents but injuring no one.

A small amount of nut oil and sulfuric acid leaked from the cars, which derailed around 1:49 a.m. near Rock Island and Atkinson roads, Lee County Emergency Management Agency Director Kevin Lalley said.

Both leaks were minor and quickly contained by train contractors and EMA crews, meaning there was no need to evacuate the area, and the amount of sulfuric acid spilled wasn’t enough to pose a danger to crew members containing it, Lalley said.

Efforts to clean up the site continued Friday, UP national media coordinator Raquel Espinoza said.

The train, which was heading west from Proviso, Illinois, to North Platte, Nebraska, consisted of five locomotives hauling 201 rail cars carrying mixed freight, including lumber and soybeans, which were in some of the derailed cars, Espinoza said.

One farmer’s land is affected, and UP is coordinating with him as its team works the area, Mayor Li Arellano Jr. said.