HARTFORD, Wis. — Three crew members were injured when a Wisconsin & Southern Railroad train derailed today (June 30, 2025) in the town of Hartford, near Independence Ave.
The derailment occurred about 9:30 a.m. Hartford Fire Chief Tony Burgard told a press conference that the three people had walked to a nearby road and were taking to a hospital with minor injuries and for further assessment and evaluation. Three locomotives and 19 cars had derailed from a train of at least 50 cars, Burgard said. The fuel tank on one locomotive was damaged, leading to a leak of “several thousand gallons” of fuel. A tank car of nitrous oxide was among those that derailed but no leak was reported.
Hartford firefighters were assisted by seven different agencies in addressing the derailment and spill. An environmental management firm was also on hand to address the spilled fuel.
Wisconsin & Southern, a Watco railroad, operates some 640 miles of track along with 160 miles of trackage rights. Hartford is on the railroad’s Milwaukee Subdivision, about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
— Updated at 6:10 p.m. CT with correct information on derailment location.
Vandalism on the switch?
Another possibility is they split the switch. That would better explain the location of the engines.
I guess what that’s what I meant to say — not that the switch was set for the wrong track, but the train split the switch. Fifty car trains don’t go loco first into an industrial spur.
From Google Maps and the position of the sun, the loco was headed SE onto an industrial spur west of Hartford. The line ahead (to the left) is the main going east into Hartford and on to Slinger, Ackerville and Milwaukee.
While I’m no expert on rail switching, it does seem unusual that a loco heads a movement into a spur. So I’m going to do what irritates me no end when anyone else does it, which is to speculate on the cause of an incident. I wonder if the switch was properly lined.
Looks like the derailment missed the electric transmission line by a couple of yards.
God, what horrible grammar.