A Vancouver man said there wasn’t so much as a bump when the Amtrak train he was riding jumped the tracks Sunday afternoon on its way to Seattle.
“To tell you the truth, no, we never felt a thing,” said John Collins, who was on his way to Seattle with a neighbor to watch the Mariners play the Cardinals.
Amtrak Cascades train 502 was heading north from Portland and had just started accelerating after stopping in Tukwila when the locomotive lost contact with the rails shortly after noon Sunday.
“Then we just stopped,” Collins said.
The locomotive remained upright, and none of cars on the train came off the track, the Associated Press reported.
“It was only going about 5 mph when it jumped the track,” Collins said.
None of the passengers on board knew what was happening until firefighters and rescue crews climbed on board, he said.
There were 235 passengers on board. No one was hurt.
The train stopped about 50 yards from the parking lot for a Family Fun Center & Bullwinkle’s Restaurant, which worked out well, Collins said, because the buses Amtrak sent could park close to the tracks.
Collins snapped a few photos, and everyone hopped off the train and walked over to the buses without much trouble.
“They handled that very well, I thought,” he said.
The derailment delayed two other Amtrak trains, along with freight traffic.
The rails reopened after 5 p.m. Sunday.
There was no visible damage to the train cars or leaking fuel, and Amtrak told the Associated Press that the cause of the derailment is under investigation.
Collins said he and his neighbor didn’t lose much time with the derailment, and they were able to make it to the game by the second inning.
Seattle lost to St. Louis 11-6.
