Hi!
Yeah, I know a little... I guess there was a 20-car derailment (BNSF) somewhere between Chicago and Galesburg. All I was able to get out of the Amtrak agent was that it was on some bridge.
Anyway, I was planning to do a little trip out to Galesburg tomorrow morning (12/21)... going out on #381 and coming back on #4. #381 leaves Chicago at 7:35am and gets to Galesburg at 10:22am and then #4 is scheduled to come in to Galesburg at 12:10pm and get into Chicago around 3:20pm.
I do this atleast once a month when I am down in Chicago visiting friends and family... mainly to do some railroad antique hunting in GBB and also to enjoy lunch in the diner on the Southwest Chief.
Anyway, got a call from Amtrak tonight (12/20) about the derailment.
The info they told me is that #381 would be all busses from CHI-GBB, then the train would run from GBB-QCY.
#4 (and I'm sure #6 also) will run as normal to LAX-GBB and then run on an alternative route to Chicago. I am guessing it's the original route of the Southwest Chief (old SF line) through Streator and Joliet.
My first instinct was to cancel... then I thought it would sorta be fun to ride the original SWC routing... but then the more I thought about it... if it's going to be one bus that is going to get off the highway at all the small stops along the way (Naperville, Plano, Princeton, Mendota, Kewanee, etc....), the bus might not make it into Galesburg until a few hours after the scheduled time of #381... meaning it could put my connection with #4 in jeopardy there... so I just opted to cancel and rebook the trip for 1/3/10.
Rob
