Day 2: Trouble from the start

Monday, July 13, 2009
I woke up on the early side (for me). David, of course, was fast asleep - and would remain so until an hour or so before we had to leave. Shocking. Our train (the California Zephyr, #5 train) didn't leave until 2 pm, so we had plenty of time to hang around. Breakfast consisted mostly of chocolate covered strawberries. This particular food item made numerous appearances throughout our trip - no complaints from me. We built in lots of extra time to drive to Union Station in downtown Chicago, but it turns out traffic wasn't much of an issue at all. Because we were traveling in a sleeper car, we had access to the passenger lounge at the train station. We hung out there for awhile (where we caught our first glimpse of an Amish group for this trip) before we boarded the train shortly before 2 pm.

We had two lower rooms on the train car - the Family Bedroom (which only works for a family if 2 of the 4 people are shorter than 3 feet in height) and a Roomette. Dad got the roomette due to his snoring and David and I would share the Family Suite. The neat thing about train travel is meeting all sorts of interesting people. We met our first pair very early on. An elderly couple in their 90s was right next to us, how lucky! The woman (Irene) had apparently misplaced her husband and was quite worked up about it. As it turns out, he (the General) was upstairs. He is partially blind, uses a walker, and had a stroke recently. Great. They were traveling as far as Denver, so we only had to deal with them until the next morning. At some point during the trip, Dad made the unfortunate offer to allow the General to sit in his roomette when Irene was napping in their's. The General took that offer to mean he could go in whenever he wanted, store his things in there, and open the door when it was closed. No good deed goes unpunished. We also met the car steward, Isaac. He seemed pretty friendly, if perhaps a bit unprofessional (he often made comments to us about other passengers).

Dad happy to be aboard

Dad was clearly excited to be on our way - I think that this was one of the things he was looking forward to most about our trip. As we were leaving, Irene and the General were talking about how unlucky things were because it was the 13th (but a Monday) and they were in room 13. They also discussed with another couple near us that they had traveled into Chicago on the same train on Friday and the train had hit a car. Oops. There would be none of that this time, right?

One hour out of Chicago, in the tiny town of Ottawa, we hear the most horrendous sound. What we saw, heard, and smell differs slightly, but one thing is certain - we hit something. Dad heard an initial thump, the sound of something rattling about, and saw debris go flying past the window. I saw nothing since I had at that moment stood up to get something but I heard the rattle and smelled gasoline. David heard the rattle and saw some debris. We came to a gradual stop, which turned out to be a good thing because there was a freight train coming the opposite direction on the rail next to us and I guess an emergency/sudden stop might have caused derailment into the other train. Facing the front of our train, the coal train was to the left and a corn field we all grow VERY familiar with was to the right.

The infamous cornfield - how quaint

We heard bits and pieces as the afternoon wore on - a family of 5 in the car (3 dead - two adults and one child), driver possibly talking on a cell phone, etc. There was also the very real possibility that the train would have to return to Chicago. Unlike most train/car collisions, the train suffered quite a bit of damage this time. When the train struck the car, the car hit a signal tower. The signal tower then bounced along the train, damaging several cars. It is lucky that no one on the train was injured. Windows, side panels, and the roof of a some cars were damaged, as was the lead engine, where the plow in the front was mangled. This led to concern that the plow wouldn't be able to clear crossings.

Dad and David, waiting to be on our way again (note the cornfield in the window).

That evening, the plow piece was removed, as were all passengers going as far as Omaha. They were put on buses for the rest of their trip. Apparently they still hadn't decided what to do with us. We began moving again shortly after that and I thought we were on our way again, about 7 hours behind schedule. We ate dinner at some point in here, the dining car was late in getting food prepared because of damage it had received. The food was nothing special, but better than nothing. Around 9:30 pm, that rattling sound and gasoline smell happened again. On the phone with Sarah, I had a bit of a freak out that we hit another car. We stopped and sat there for a long time before they made an announcement that we would be going 10 mph to Mendota, IL for some work. Great. It seems that pieces from the engine car had fallen off and that was the sound I heard. No one else smelled anything, so I think I must have imagined that - but it seemed so real. By this point, my patience had worn very thin and I wanted off the train. As long as the train is in motion at a reasonable speed and we are making progress, I have no problem with train travel - I even kinda like it. But sitting in one location for hours on end with little communication causes me stress and irritation. Once we arrived in Mendota, they turned the power off on the train. This wasn't the first time they had done this today - hours with no air circulation, toilet flushing, or power is just what I love! We were supposed to have traveled 500 miles by bedtime, not 70.

Sunset over an Illinois cornfield

We had gone to bed at this point since it was quite late - David on the top bunk (very hard and narrow - sorry David!), me in the lower bunk, wider and not quite as hard, and Dad in his separate room. The General and Irene were across the hall, having difficulties with the 2 bunks, concept of no power, and general old-age issues. Numerous times they tried to come into our room. (I call him the General because he said he was a 2-star general. I haven't found much proof. He and Irene are quite the eccentric couple, though.) Since we weren't yet out of Illinois, it looked like we might get extra time with them - how lucky for us! Anyway, I slept maybe an hour or two that night. Travel anxieties were certainly causing me great stress that this point. Hopefully tomorrow would be better...

We later found out that three people died in the accident - a 9 year old girl and her grandparents. It seems that which ever grandparent was driving did not stop at the railroad crossing (there were no flashing lights or gate in such a rural area) and may have actually passed a stopped car to try and beat the train. Two other children survived the crash after being airlifted out. As horrifying as the accident was and as badly as I feel for the family, things like this make me angry. It was so preventable. It isn't worth it against a train - the train will always win. Here are 2 links to articles about the accident:

Story #1 - Chicago CBS Affiliate (watch the video link for accident footage)
Story #2 - Beacon News (the Nebraska woman quoted was in our train car with us)

Click to Enlarge - Our Journey, Thus Far