A DERAILED locomotive may have started a domino effect for a Union Pacific coal train that left the tracks northeast of Las Vegas in Nevada on Sunday night.
UP spokesperson Mark David confirmed that 19 cars of the 103-car loaded train, which included four locomotives, went off the tracks at about 10pm on Sunday near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The other cars seem to have derailed after a locomotive toppled.
Each car on the line was holding about 75 short tons of coal.
The train was headed from Carbon County, Utah mine to a utility in Mojave, California.
Crews were hoping to have the line running again by 4am on Tuesday, following track repair and bringing cars upright.
However, no updated status information was available on Tuesday afternoon and the company made no further comment.
According to Union Pacific, the line where the incident occurred carries about 12 trains daily.
The railroad’s investigation has commenced.
