San Diegan Train Derails; No Injuries Reported

An Amtrak train derailed Thursday afternoon north of San Juan Capistrano, but no one was injured, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said.

At 4:20, the wheels on one side of the San Diegan’s cafe car jumped the rail and ended up in the gravel beside the track, said Lt. Russ Elsner. It took Amtrak mechanics three hours to get the train back on track, while the 175 passengers, traveling from San Diego to Los Angeles, waited on board.

Tony Mastrangelo, Amtrak’s Los Angeles station manager, said the railroad planned to transport the passengers to Los Angeles by bus or by another train. The reason for the derailment was not known.

The incident caused a domino effect; two later passenger trains and a freight train were also delayed, Mastrangelo said.

Jerry McMillan, of Placentia, who was waiting in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. for his daughter to arrive on the derailed train, said: “I’ve never seen anything so ridiculous in my life. I’ve been wandering around here since 5 p.m. and I can’t get any straight answers.”