The Train Through Gunter
This information is provided by Gunter resident and owner of guntertexas.com, Todd Turner and was gathered through research conducted through interviews with railroad officials and Internet research.
The route through Gunter is operated by BNSF and essentially links Tulsa and Dallas/Ft. Worth. It is a secondary route for BNSF. A typical day sees a total of about 10-12 trains.
The primary traffic on this line is aggregates destined for the DFW area construction industry. In fact, there are only two daily trains operated that don't involve the rock business. One is a local train that originates Monday through Saturday in Sherman and operates as far as Prosper and then returns to Sherman. Most typically, it appears to pass through Gunter southbound about noon and then return northbound in the late afternoon. Any industrial switching is handled by this crew. The manifest train designated to operate through Gunter is a bedtime train. It transports freight destined to D/FW and points south.
The BNSF rock trains have a typical pattern of southbound loads in the early hours of the day, then empties returning north in the later part of each day. Also, trains of the shortline carrier DGNO utilize the route several days per week. Their business is also for moving aggregates.
The Associated Press
5/20/2004, 5:54 a.m. ET
GUNTER, Texas (AP) — Two freight trains collided just outside this small North Texas town Wednesday, killing an engineer and injuring four other people, authorities said. About 20 cars derailed in a tangled mess of steel.
Department of Public Safety Trooper Rebecca Uresti said one of the injured suffered severe burns and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Dallas, about 50 miles to the south.
The other three victims were taken to a hospital in Sherman, a few miles from the crash scene. Uresti said the man who died was an engineer.
Lt. David Hawley of the Grayson County Sheriff's Department said the rail cars on one of the trains were empty. The other hauled rocks. At least one of the locomotives burned in the head-on crash.
There were no evacuations, but a hazardous materials crew was called to the scene to clean up spilled diesel fuel.
Television footage showed about 20 cars off the tracks. The rock-hauling train had 24 cars and three locomotives, officials said. The number of cars on the other train was not immediately available.
Joe Faust, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., said both of the trains belong to the company.
The cause of the accident wasn't immediately known. Federal Transportation Department officials were on the scene late Wednesday, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were headed there, Hawley said.
On May 3, two freight trains collided on a Union Pacific track just south of downtown San Antonio, injuring three people.
Two locomotives and 12 freight cars from one of the trains derailed, with both engines and five of the cars falling into the San Antonio River. About 5,600 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled into the river, according to a Union Pacific spokesman.
