Saw this (remains of derailment) the next morning after it happened. I was on my way From Pontiac to the Detroit Station with the early train to Chicago. The roadbed had already been repaired, but most of the damaged auto carriers were still in evidence. They have to remain in place until the insurance folks look everything over and make their determinations. If there was some sort of equipment failure, then the manufacturer would be partially responsible. Regardless, the operating railroad carries most of the brunt of the cost - through their insurance carrier, of course - and higher premiums down the line.

It was later determined that the rail had 'spread' - usually a sign of poor, infrequent maintenance, old spikes, deteriorated ties - that sort of thing. The rail spreading allows a wheel to drop off the track (go in the mud, in the vernacular) and nothing good happens after that. As these photos show...

Since passenger trains also use this section of track, there is a lot of pressure (from Amtrak) to get the mess cleaned up and out of the eye of the traveling public.

Believe it or not, I was once riding in a lite engine (single engine traveling by itself) that hit a spot in the track where the rail spread right under us. I was along in some sort of non-working capacity, a training, or qualifying trip. There was no extra seat, so I was standing in the center of the cab by the radio stand - between the engineer and the conductor, both of whom were seated.

We were on a seldom used piece of track, perhaps a siding - and surely going too fast for the circumstances. Even a rookie like myself could tell that, from the way the unit was bouncing all over the rail, bottoming out on its suspension, and careening all over the place.

I had to hang onto the radio stand to keep from being tossed about. It is possible that these old heads were having a bit of a go with the 'new guy', I'll never know - but they were just as surprised as I when we dropped off the rail.

The ride before seemed positively calm and smooth compared to what we felt now. The left hand wheels seemed to still be on the rail - this adjudged from the tilt of the cab - but on the right side, both front and rear trucks were definitely in the mud. As each wheel ran over a wooden tie and its metal tie plate, it jumped up a few inches, then dropped back into the soft ballast between ties. This was happening at a rather furious pace, since we must have been doing all of thirty on a section of track good for no more than ten in the first place.

This up and down bouncing was far more than the old suspension was ever designed to absorb, and the engineer issued this cry of warning - "Hang On!" as if I wasn't, for dear life. Dust and debris was flying about the cab, as anything loose was now in motion, including me. I had relaxed me knees as if water skiing, to try and soak up some of the action as the cab floor alternately smashed into my boots, and then fell away - but there was nothing else I could do, or hang on to...
Surely we were about to leave the gauge and likely tip over, when -

The old girl came to good rail and jumped right back up on the tracks!

We all started laughing and couldn't stop. We also continued at a more sedate pace, and called in the broken rail.

Since the train that had derailed outside Pontiac didn't have a caboose, there was no way for the crew on the head end to even know things had gone awry until one of the derailed cars got far enough out of the gauge to pop an air hose and put the train into an emergency brake application. By then, the damage was done, of course.