| Date: November 6, 1999 | | Location Canada to Mexico - Return Trip | | Where: Santa Clara, California | Saturday - Jeanette writes
The Train Wreck
We thought our adventure was over. At 5:45 yesterday we were finishing dinner in the dining car when heard and felt a JOLT. Amtrak employees reacted instantly. They yelled out, "Emergency condition! Sit NOW! Brace yourselves!" I thought they were making a big deal out of one jolt, but that was just the beginning.
That jolt apparently was from the engineer throwing on the emergency brake when he saw a truck driver start to cross our track. (We were going about 60 mph.) The thing that worried me were flashes of light and sparks flying up from both sides of the car. This may have been from heat and fusion of the wheels & rails. The 2nd JOLT was when we hit the truck trailer. Then there were lots of jolts, bumps & tipping. Food, dishes & people were sliding & crashing as we derailed, bumped along the ties & accordianed into the car in front of us tipped at an angle.
Our food and mess landed on the couple that we had just met and were enjoying conversation with moments before. I was concerned about her condition and fear at first, but everyone in our car reacted very well.
The train employees tended to the injured and got them off to ambulances and fire crew. Next they formed a human chain of support so that we could evacuate the car sliding down the steep, slippery, slanting stairway into the galley - over the deep debris strewn across the floor. They helped us climb down onto the field where our car had come to rest.
We huddled together in shock and disbelief. Soon the cold and fog got me shivering. Before officials showed up to establish rules and guidelines, Jim and I borrowed a tiny, dim penlight and sneaked back to our sleeper car were our bags, money, cell phone and coats were tossed about.
We were so lucky - so many times. We think that we found everything in the demolition that was once our sleeping room and got off the car without incident.
The news crews arrived almost as fast as the emergency crews - and just as many! I was interviewed twice by NBC and Jim was taped. For the next 7 hours we lived with cameras and TV crews.
Passengers were good about helping each other, looking for baggage, loaning flashlights and cell phones waiting patiently for information and a chance to pee.
We were loaded onto buses @ 9:30 and escorted by police through fog to a school cafeteria in Salinas. There the Red Cross had blankets, drinks, pastry and teddy bears. The tedium of waiting and wondering was well endured by most everyone. We even tolerated a couple of "grandstanders" and misinformed "officials" with good humor.
We were tired when they started loading busses for differing destinations @ 11:00. By 12:15 we were headed for the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel. By 1:30 AM we had some hot soup and flight information for a trip home on Friday. At that point the combination of flights, busses and limo seemed difficult, so we asked for a train instead.
Today were are recuperating at the Marriott courtesy of Amtrak. Mary Sites, our angel of mercy, will take us shopping and out this afternoon. We expect to board a train @ 9:12 tonight in Oakland. There were no sleepers available so we hope for a "no show" so we can snooze some on the trip home.
This may REALLY be our last Email message and adventure report before we arrive in Salem tomorrow afternoon.
"Live, from Santa Clara, California, this is Jeanette Scott your Pocket Mail Reporter signing off, back to you, Ted"
|  | | off the tracks |  | | Jim & Jeanette |  | | Jim assembles the bikes at Salem AMTRACK for the ride home |
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