Train derails near Glenview-Northbrook border

A Union Pacific freight train derailed in Glenview Wednesday afternoon and caused a bridge to collapse.

The derailment occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Shermer Avenue, just south of Willow Road, a Glenview police spokesman said.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the train - which included three locomotives and 138 cars - was carrying coal and traveling from Wyoming to Wisconsin.

He said 31 of the cars derailed and no injuries were reported. A bridge that crosses over Shermer Avenue collapsed, blocking traffic for at least 48 hours, Davis said.

He estimates it will take at least 24 hours to clean up the railcars and coal, and another 24 hours to fill the bridge area with rock so railroad track can be laid down again.

"It's just, literally, a matter of getting everything picked up," he said.

Freight trains that usually uses those tracks will be detoured until the track is set again.

Davis said the bridge collapse was a result, not a cause, of the derailment. The cause, he said, is still under investigation. The derailment will not affect any passenger trains.