Karmactive Staff
A Canadian Pacific Kansas City freight train derailed near Lowell on Friday, August 15, 2025. Initial reports indicated about 22 cars from a 95-car consist went off-track between Maiden Lane Road and Reeseville around 2:05 p.m., though later officials updated the count to more than 30 derailed cars.
The tank cars were hauling crude oil. Officials confirmed that several cars were leaking, with Clyman-Lowell-Reeseville Fire Chief Eric Howlett reporting that some cars were punctured by tracks while others were leaking from their tops. The spill has been contained to railroad property.
The good news: nobody got hurt, and authorities aren’t ordering folks to leave their homes. Only one nearby resident left voluntarily to allow emergency crews to work.
“We are asking the public to avoid the area so that emergency crews can manage this incident,” said Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt in a statement. “We also would like to remind the public that railroad property is private property and anyone who trespasses on railroad property may be cited or arrested for trespassing.”
The derailment happened in exactly the same spot as a similar incident in July 2023, when about 30 cars carrying grain and potash derailed without injuries. According to documents uncovered by local media suggest the 2023 derailment was caused by track alignment issues, which has not been confirmed by authorities though.
A unified command team from Clyman/Lowell/Reeseville Fire, the Sheriff’s Office, and CPKC is managing the situation. They’re checking air quality and working to contain and clean up the spill on railroad property.
Sheriff Schmidt said federal responders are working to repair the damaged track with hopes to reopen the line Friday evening. Rail traffic on the line was disrupted, affecting Amtrak service between Milwaukee and Minneapolis, with trains being rerouted via BNSF Railway.
The Federal Railroad Administration will investigate what caused the cars to derail. Sheriff Schmidt has expressed concerns about the recurring derailments, telling reporters: “We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
For the latest updates, residents should monitor the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office online pages, where officials are posting safety information and road closure details.
