L.A.-Bound Train Derails in Colorado Snow

Investigators were trying to determine Monday what caused an 18-car passenger train to jump the tracks, stranding nearly 300 holiday travelers overnight but injuring no one, Amtrak said Monday.

The passengers aboard the California Zephyr remained on the train, which still had light and heat, for several hours Sunday night until a work train brought them here Monday.

“We know what happened, not why it happened,” said John Jacobsen, Amtrak director of public relations in Washington. He said that some of the wheels slipped between the rails, causing the cars to go off the tracks.

“The wheels dropped down between the rails, and that’s what kept it upright,” he said. “The train couldn’t move because it was locked into place by the rail.”

‘A Bit of Caroling’

Jerry Pilcher of Chicago said passengers took the derailment in stride, in part because the train already was several hours behind schedule. “There was a bit of caroling. It couldn’t have gone more smoothly if it had been a drill,” Pilcher said.

The train, carrying 294 passengers and about 15 crew members, originated in Chicago and was headed for Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It was 150 miles west of Denver and 10 miles east of here when it left the tracks.

It was snowing heavily at the time and about a foot of snow was on the ground, but that should not have had any bearing on the track, Jacobsen said.

Some passengers compared the derailment to a rough airplane landing or driving over cobblestones.

“It was a miracle no one got hurt,” said Wardell Copeland of Vallejo, Calif. “It was amazing that none of the cars went off into the (Colorado) river. About 15 feet, and that would have been it.”

Most passengers took buses to Salt Lake City or back to Denver.