YODER – The quite little town of Yoder shook last Wednesday afternoon when a handful of locomotive cars slide off the railway tracks.
Residents describe hearing the normal ‘clanks’ and ‘bangs’ throughout the town that closely neighbors a railroad track, however the sounds that flowed through the town on Wednesday were a bit different.

“At approximately 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, local time, 11 railcars on the Union Pacific train derailed just west of Yoder, Wyoming,” Mike Jaixen, a Union Pacific spokesman said. “There were no injuries and no release of hazardous materials though a small amount of sand was release as the cars were moved afterwards. This incident remains under investigation.”

“While the railroad was pulling cars from our facility, several derailed,” Tony Curcio, Director of Strategies for Western Proppants, said. “The cause of the derailment is currently under investigation. No persons were injured, and the derailment occurred on railroad property.”

The sand processing facility, Western Proppants, has been in operation for the last three years. They process oil fracking sand for resale at the Yoder facility.  

“We process sand. We dry it through some rotary dryers and sort it, which means we run it through some screens into appropriately sized distributions or mesh distributions,” Curcio said. “From there we either put it in railcars to ship the finished product, primarily north to the Power River Basin, or we put it in truck. Most of the trucks that pull out of our yard go down south to Laramie County.”

Yoder residents have witnessed the massive cleanup crews working well into the night.

“For this particular cleanup, it fell to the responsibility of business in the area,” Jaixen said. 

Derek and Presley Lowe of Yoder reported hearing a ‘huge banging sound’ that continued on into the night, but they attributed the sounds to the adjacent factory. 

“Honestly, I can’t remember what time it was when it happened. It woke up the baby, so I was mad,” Presley said. “We figured it was just the factory because they have been ridiculously loud the last week or so. We figured it was just the typical loud sounds that come from there [Western Proppants].”

There is no estimated in the time it will take for the cleanup to be completed. 

“Inevitably, it’s something that may look worse that it is,” Curcio said. “The material we handle is again, sand, that comes from the dunes northeast of Torrington. No chemicals or any hazmat materials were involved, just good old sand.” 

During the last three years, Western Proppants has had incidents however those incidents 

“There have been some minor, nonreportable, derails that have happen. It typically happens around switches, where the wheels don’t match up with the tracks properly,” Curcio said. “Those kinds are usually fixed without kind of incident. This is the first one like this.”