Amtrak's Cardinal delayed by Robbery

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Mar 2000

from the Huntington Herald Leader, October 24, 1999 submitted by Herb Parsons

Amtrak's problem-plagued Cardinal has found yet another reason to be late - Thursday night's train out of Chicago was robbed.

The train, carrying two extra diesel locomotives and 18 extra cars to be used on the New River Train excursions, was stopped on a red signal shortly after leaving Chicago's Union Station.

Susan Bruno, a cook on the Minneapolis-based private car Caritas, the last of the extra cars, happened to be on its open rear platform and saw three people walking away from an open door on the Cardinals regular baggage car just behind the Caritas. "I was chitchatting with an electrician when I heard noises, looked over and saw them," Bruno said Saturday. Crew members alerted local police.

Twelve pieces of luggage and two boxes of freight were found stashed under the train, where the thieves apparently intended to leave them until the train had departed, Bruno said.

The Chicago Police Department arrested three men fitting the description supplied by Bruno four blocks away from the train, she said.

"We were blocked by the Union Pacific - the typical traffic congestion usually encountered by the Cardinal between Union Station and Dyer, Indiana," said Charles L. Akers, service manager of charter services for Amtrak Intercity.

The robbery delayed the train three and a half hours. By the time it arrived in Indianapolis, it was clear the train wouldn't make it to the next crew-change point in Cincinnati by the time the crews 12-hour work limit was up, so the train - and the passengers - waited in Indianapolis four more hours while another engineer was driven out from Chicago to continue the run.

The train arrived in Huntington nine and a half hours late Friday evening and waited another hour while the extra engines and cars were detached for use on the weekend's special trains to Hinton, W Va.