Worthington Subdivision

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Worthington Subdivision, also called Worthington Sub, is a Union Pacific Railroad line running from St. James Township, Minnesota to Sioux City, Iowa. The line generally travels southwest to northeast. It begins where the Mankato Sub ends in St. James Township and continues to Sioux City. There are yard facilities in Worthington and Sioux City, plus a small yard north of Worthington in Hersey and Lorain townships called Elk Creek. The route passes many small towns with grain elevators and is the origin of many grain unit trains. In 2003, about four freight trains were seen on the line each day.

History: The line started as the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad, built in 1871–1872. It became a division of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway (the Omaha Road), which in 1882 became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway. The Chicago and North Western was acquired by Union Pacific in 1995.

Operations: Main-track authority is dispatched via Centralized Traffic Control from West St. James to South Butterfield. From there, Track Warrant Control is used to Le Mars, Iowa, where automatic block signaling works with TWC. UP has trackage rights over CN’s track from Le Mars to Sioux City, though UP dispatchers control the main-track authority.

Accidents: On November 18, 1999, an empty northbound UP grain unit train was stopped on the main track at Carnes to meet a southbound UP manifest train. The southbound train did not enter the siding and struck the stopped train, derailing 30 cars and five locomotives; the conductor, Paul Schmidt, and a crew van driver, Dale Evans, were killed. This helped spur the push for Positive Train Control. On May 16, 2021, a UP manifest train derailed and caught fire in Sibley, Iowa, carrying asphalt, hydrochloric acid, and potassium hydroxide. Forty-seven cars derailed; about 80 people were evacuated. The derailed cars burned for nearly two days, but there were no injuries or deaths.