SWC delays 5-13-17; BNSF derailment

[s10mk]

Hi everyone, I'm getting ready to finish up my west coast amtrak trip. I had an amazing time. Yesterday, I was on the swc #4 and it was about 6 hours late getting into chicago. Apparently there was a derailment on the bnsf mainline somewhere east of Kansas city. And we had to do a re-route on some secondary track to get around the derailment. Does anyone know what happened? How many cars came off the track?

 

[Palmetto]

BNSF's train H-GALKCK is a train composed of mixed types of freight cars [called a manifest train] and this one originates in Galesbug, IL [GAL] and terminates in Kansas City Argentine Yard [KCK]. It derailed on a bridge between La Plata and Kansas city, that shut down your normal route. At Kansas City, your train went on a detour route, the BNSF's Brookfield Sub as far as Bucklin, MO, where your train regained its usual route. The detour route is not high speed, and that caused your delay, in part. Additionally, your train had to wait a couple of hours at Kansas City for a BNSF engineer who is qualified on the detour route [he's called a pilot].

Today's #4 did the same, and it's running more than 4 hours late approaching Ft. Madison, IA.

I do not know any details of the derailment itself. Perhaps someone else could chime in.