AMTK P42DC 183Orrick MO Orrick

BNSF suffered a storm-related train wreck on its TransCon line near Mendon, Missouri, late on the night of 3/6/17, which caused 54 of 57 cars of a double-stack train to derail and pile up, blocking both main tracks. The closure necessitated the detour of a number of high-priority freights, plus the westbound Amtrak #3 of that night, as well as the #4 train pictured above. The roughly-parallel BNSF Brookfield Sub hosted these priority detours until service could be restored to the TransCon, which took most of the day of 3/7/17. For trains which were not detoured, they were stopped and tied down (hand-brakes applied to locos and a number of cars), and the crews transported back to the terminals via roads and highways. As the day went by, additional trains would leave the yards to wait until traffic could get through the derailment area. Emergency crews with side-boom Cat dozers and other heavy equipment work continuously until tracks are rebuilt enough for trains to pass, often leaving wrecked equipment on site for days or even weeks until it is removed or scrapped. In the photo above, Amtrak #4 is in the siding to meet a westbound stack train also detouring as a result of the wreck on the TransCon.