The container, which was being transported in a manifest train operating between Chicago and St. Paul, hit a Canadian Pacific overpass and an unnamed road bridge before striking the 35th Street overpass and falling off the train.
The Arrowedge was loaded in the top spot on a well car at the time of the incident. Another container carrying plastics products was loaded under it. Double stack containers do not normally operate through Milwaukee on Union Pacific because of clearance issues.
“We have an investigation underway to determine how the Arrowedge ended up on that route,” railroad spokesman Aaron Hunt says. “We are assessing what to do withe damaged equipment.”
The incident occurred Monday morning and did not result in derailment or injury, Hunt says.
The employee-designed, 48-foot Arrowedge container has a tapered body that allows air to more easily flow around the train’s containers. This reduces fuel consumption and locomotive emissions because of reduced wind drag on double stack container trains, the company says.
Trains News Wire is awaiting additional information from the railroad.
For more on freight train aerodynamics, including the Arrowedge program, see the May 2014 issue of Trains magazine.
