Derailment sure can happen! New Year's Eve 1995 I was riding Amtrak from Chicago to Omaha. Thanks to a derailed freight train somewhere in Iowa we got detoured on slow tracks down through Missouri and back up again. We finally pulled into Omaha about 6 hours late. Still, there was a good "Happy New Year" with everyone on board -- Somewhere on the edges of Kansas City, if I recall correctly. [Linked Image]

By the way, the NYC to Chicago run was within 5 minutes of the scheduled time, despite 950 miles of ice and snow across the Mid-West. British Railways, please take note!