HOW IT ALL WORKS - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 187

Here are just a few I've experienced over a number of years while
gathering material for this topic:
• The westbound California Zephyr is delayed three hours
when a Union Pacific freight ahead of us breaks a wheel and
the track has to be repaired.
• The northbound Silver Meteor is delayed 30 minutes in
Savannah, Georgia, while paramedics come aboard to exam-
ine a sick passenger. (He's finally removed from the train and
driven off in an ambulance.)
• The southbound Silver Star's departure from Washington,
D.C., is delayed four hours when a flash flood washes out a
section of track 20 miles south of the city.
• The eastbound Empire Builder is delayed a total of 2 hours
and 40 minutes after waiting on sidings to allow four other
trains to pass (three freights and the westbound Builder).
• The northbound Montrealer is delayed 45 minutes while the
train crew removes an old refrigerator and a mattress placed
on the track by vandals. (This train no longer operates—
although, I hasten to add, not for that reason.)
• The westbound Capitol Limited is delayed 90 minutes just
outside Harpers Ferry when the train loses head-end power
from a locomotive.
• The northbound Coast Starlight is delayed 20 minutes in
Oakland where the tracks ran down the middle of a main
street fronting Jack London Square. Someone parked a car on
the tracks, locked it, and went off shopping. (Yes, of course
it's true. No one could make up something like that!)