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Tanker train car blast leaves 1 dead in Arkansas
Unit carrying flammable gas derailed and exploded; 2 homes, several vehicles destroyed

Associated Press
TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A tanker car transporting flammable gas derailed in a switching yard and exploded in a ball of fire Saturday, killing one person and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes.
A plume of smoke covered the south end of the city, and at least seven people went to hospital emergency rooms with complaints of respiratory problems.

At least two homes were destroyed -- including one where the victim died -- and several vehicles were totaled in the quarter-mile area surrounding the accident, police spokesman Chris Rankin said. A 209-foot-long railroad bridge also caught fire and was destroyed, a Union Pacific spokesman said.
The propylene tank was still burning Saturday evening, but the fire was under control and the smoke had thinned out, Rankin said.
Initially, police thought the chemical involved was vinyl acetate, which releases poisonous fumes. Officers went door to door, urging thousands of people in a 2-by-5-mile area to move to the northside of town. Propylene is less dangerous.
"The smoke was so thick it blocked out daylight," Rankin said.
A Union Pacific train coming from Chicago hit the back of another freight train in the rail yard, causing the eight cars to derail, said Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis.
None of the railroad crew members was injured, he said.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/NEWS06/510160520/1012/NEWS06

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis, heading to the scene from Omaha, Neb., said the freight train coming from Chicago hit the back of another train in the rail yard, causing two empty hopper cars to derail. He said one of the cars hit "a small LPG tank" similar to what farmers use for fuel. Union Pacific did not know what caused the accident, he said.

The train was headed for Laredo, Texas, when it hit the back of the other Union Pacific freight train, which was coming from Pine Bluff and headed for Harlingen, Texas, Davis said.

Rankin said the switching yard is behind the police station, about a quarter mile from the Texas border and also serves Kansas City Southern and Amtrak.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1215647

Another unknown cause train accident.

My guess is that someone has figured out how to change the speed and stop signals for the trains.

Robbers on horseback, would set the stop signal, then rob the train while stopped, so playing with train signals goes back to the first trains.

We had 2 in Chicago, in the past month, in which the engineer said they were going the signaled speed, but the investigators say they were speeding.

Pass the tinfoil.