LECLAIRE, Iowa – The speed of the train and whether there was a broken rail is under investigation. Business owners in the area have always wondered if trains are going too fast in the LeClaire stretch.
Bob Schiffkey saw the train derail from his front row seat at the Buffalo Bill Museum.
“Out light went out and I heard a crash at the same time,” Schiffkey remembers. “My car almost got hit, because one of the wheels from one of the trains rolled down.”
Monday morning the museum is still closed while crews fix their electrical lines.
“They had to go pretty fast for the cars to be stacked up as they were,” Shiffkey says.
In LeClaire cars traveling downtown must obey the speed limit of 25 MPH. But one block from the main tourist area trains on the track can go 40 MPH, according to Canadian Pacific.
“It flies by, I’m surprised no one is hurt yet honestly,” says Anastasia Schold, an employee at The Shameless Chocoholic.
She says she sees trains zoom by from the back window of the chocolate shop all the time.
“When we’re sitting here working with customers, they’re like “Oh gosh, look at that train, look how fast it’s going” – it flies,” Schold emphasizes.
Whether it was the trains speed or not, Schiffkey says it’s amazing no one was hurt.
“I consider us pretty fortunate, could’ve been a lot worse,” Schiffkey says.
The Buffalo Bill Museum will reopen Tuesday.