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(update 4:48-p.m.) Union Pacific trains collide near Grand Junction

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May 9th, 2013 by Ric Hanson

GRAND JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) — Union Pacific Railroad is updating information from a morning collision between two trains in central Iowa. An eastbound coal train and westbound train carrying cargo containers collided Thursday morning derailing 13 coal cars and 22 cars of the intermodal cargo train —which carries ocean-going containers on flatbed cars. That’s more train cars than originally reported. Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says there are no injuries.

The crash shut down a section of the company’s mainline track near Grand Junction about 60 miles northwest of Des Moines. The cause of the 6:20 a.m. collision is not immediately clear.

Davis says the derailment has halted traffic on main tracks between Chicago and the company’s Iowa and Nebraska destinations. Trains are being detoured. Cleanup is expected to be finished late Friday.