CHICAGO — While thousands of air travelers were stranded or severely delayed by canceled flights as a wind-swept snowstorm blanketed the Midwest and Great Lakes region, Amtrak’s sold-out trains suffered only a few significant setbacks nationwide over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Only the Floridian was delayed an hour and a half leaving Chicago Saturday (Nov. 29) despite about 8 inches of windblown snow falling all day. Amtrak mechanical forces braved the elements to get the trains out.
A Trains visit to Union Station this afternoon, when all departing trains were sold out, revealed more organized crowd-handling than past Thanksgivings. Instead of travelers lining up in the Great Hall, then marching down to the platforms, they could relax around the hall’s big Christmas tree and, when their train was called, proceed to the passage under Canal Street to join a boarding line.
Although on-time departures were the rule, a snag occurred with a minor derailment of the inbound Texas Eagle north of Joliet, Ill., apparently blocking the path of its westbound counterpart. Amtrak said in a Sunday evening statement that at about 1:35 p.m., two sets of wheels on the locomotive and one set of wheels on a car derailed at about 15 mph; the locomotive continued to provide power to the cars until charter buses could take the 253 passengers the rest of the way to Chicago. As a result, the outbound Eagle passengers who were aboard for an on-time departure at 1:52 p.m., did not leave the station until 4:09 p.m.
Earlier setbacks
A handful of interruptions occurred late Thursday into Friday. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari tells Trains that a suspected debris strike disabled eastbound Wolverine No. 352 on Thanksgiving evening near Marshall, Mich., east of Battle Creek. A Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office press release says 107 passengers were transported by Marshall Public Schools buses to the Amtrak station in Battle Creek, where they were picked up by badly delayed eastbound Wolverine No. 354. That train arrived in Pontiac, Mich., at 7:53 a.m. Friday. Thursday’s westbound No. 355, stuck east of the other two trains, limped into Chicago at 6:53 a.m. Friday instead of 10:40 p.m. Thursday.
Also, early Friday morning at St. Louis, a massive fire in a vacant warehouse near the tracks blocked all rail traffic through the area. Lincoln Service equipment intended for early-morning train Nos. 300 and 302 was stranded at the station, so Amtrak substituted buses. But these were isolated exceptions.
Weather did impact a number of regional and long-distance trains. Two eastbound Empire Builders fought blowing snow and were running one to two hours late Saturday; the westbound train that day lost four hours in Wisconsin due to an “intermittent communication outage and rail congestion,” while the eastbound Builder encountered a disabled BNSF Railway freight east of Libby, Mont., early today, resulting in a five-hour delay. However, as has been typical over past holidays, fewer freight trains resulted in less interference around the network.
The heavily traveled Northeast Corridor did experience a few disruptions. On Saturday, Washington-bound Northeast Regional No. 121 departed New York almost two hours late, as did No. 122, its return trip. WJAR-TV reports that on Sunday, Acela No. 2153 from Boston, operating with a legacy trainset, terminated at Providence, R.I., after a fire erupted under one of the cars. The two Washington-bound Acelas that followed were delayed more than an hour.
Accommodating the crowds
Despite walk-up fares approaching $300 on Sunday [see “Capacity pinch points…,” Trains.com Nov. 24, 2025], of the 37 Washington-New York round trips, 14 trains to New York and seven to Washington were sold out or blocked for sale in coach or Acela business class as of midday Saturday. The busiest segment appears to be Baltimore-Wilmington, Del., where there are no commuter rail alternatives, although the majority of Sunday Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York eastbound Keystones were also sold out as of Saturday.
In the Midwest, in addition to total sellouts on the Detroit and St. Louis corridors, Sunday sellouts spread to all midday Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawathas and the Borealis in both directions.
— Updated at 10:10 p.m. CT with information on Texas Eagle derailment. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Yesterday (12/19) and Thursday (12/18) the eastbound Empire Builder was approximately FOURTEEN hours late at St Cloud, MN.
As fine as these pix West of Milw. are, some very interesting locales are East on the C&M, which will become more so if speeds go up to 110 mph.
Returned yesterday (Tues. 2 Dec.) D.C. to NYPenn. Departure delayed 1/2 hour due to track work between Manassas VA, where the NE Regional began, and D.C. Some 500 aboard. Slow orders meant arrival 65 min. late. Some stretches rough, better Trenton-Ptn. Jct. Much left of the PRR’s magnificent infrastructure, but much track lifted. Lotsa MoW equipment scattered about. One very long ballast train, one southbound coal, and one short way freight. New Portal bridge nearing completion.
The pictured CZ is a standard consist – the SWC carries three coaches. #3-30 that departed right behind the pictured train left Newton KS the following morning with only one coach remaining to continue the journey to LAX (at present) scheduled to arrive over 10 hours late 12/2.
Gotta luv those old Milw. Rd. ROW pix.
BTW…the Wed. (day before Thanks.) ride NYC-Penn to DC on NE Regional was impressive, 900+ sold out, departure and arrival on time to the minute, 125 mph tops, but terrible ride due to poor track; my guess is deferred maint.
Return tomorrow…will be interesting.
The track condition is sad to note. I remember how well it rode in the mid to late 1970s after the track and roadbed was upgraded.
Very glad to see an article like this describing holiday passenger traffic, including widespread sell-outs and reasons for delays. All the more excellent for author Bob Johnston to also take related photographs! And to ice the cake, to savor the six hour interval from the California Zephyr photograph at 2 PM to the publication of this article with photograph in “Trains.com Unlimited” about 8 PM this evening, same date! Similar occurrence with David Lassen’s Borealis photograph, same date! Hopefully, top notch journalism like this will result in increased new subscriptions and renewals to “TrainsPRO.” WALTER FRITZ…OBER, INDIANA…574-772-4766
The photo of EB in Brookfield, Wisconsin, shows the tracks separating as the train approached Brookfield Road. To the left (south) of the photo is the slope onto which the old MILW Brookfield depot was relocated to serve as a coffee shop.
The tracks will next come together several miles east at Elm Grove.
The photo of Boring Allice shows a separated track on a two-track railroad.
Between the tracks you will find subdivisions, a large park, a small cemetery, a church, a mosque, a restaurant, and several businesses such as storage warehouses.