Orange, Green Line Trains Delayed After Derailment In South Loop
Updated 04/29/12 - 5:22 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- CTA Orange Line and Green Line trains have been delayed in the South Loop after a train derailed just south of the Roosevelt station.
One car of a four-car CTA train derailed just south of the Roosevelt stop around 11:15 a.m.
No one was injured.
WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports the train had been chartered by a group of 40 train enthusiasts, who paid about $100 each to raise money for the Illinois Railway Museum downstate.
Train buff Daniel Boylan was on the car that derailed. At the time, the train was pulling into a siding to allow a regular CTA passenger train to pass the charter train, he said. Three of the cars on the train made it into the siding, but the fourth car did not, and it derailed.
"As bizarre as this sounds, half the people on the train are professional railroaders. The biggest joke amongst us was the fact that nobody's got to fill out the paperwork on this incident," Boylan said. "We've done this for a couple years now, and now we're all like, 'Well, we now have a unique story to tell.' I mean, a lot of us ride the CTA every day, and this never happens. So, it's … I'm not going to say fun, but it's just different."
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports
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Most of the passengers on the train walked along the 'L' to the Roosevelt station after power was shut off to the tracks.
Boylan, and a friend who has a bad leg were taken off the tracks using a Fire Department bucket.
The derailment led to suspended service on parts of both the Orange Line and Green Line for several hours, but service on both lines returned to normal by Sunday afternoon.
