Livery of Canadian Locomotives...

Trains...

More trains...

Surprisingly little difference (18 mph) between wheeled and magnetic levitation top speeds. Both records in special setups, BTW.
Various factors have sure done a job on US rail.

US rail is different than the rest of the world as their main concern is moving people where ours is freight. Freight doesn't have to move at 200 mph, more concerned with tonnage, longer distances, and as cheap as possible.

Roundhouse...

New Zealand earthquake...

I love telephoto lens compression. It really shows the curvy track. Obviously it's bad enough to replace, but how bad is it really? Could a train have navigated it as slow speed?

What makes you think it's compressed, the shadow of the utility pole is spaced properly.

I'm not saying it's digitally altered in any way. I'm saying the choice of the lens and the location of the photographer both really accentuate the curve of the track. If you were to take an aerial shot of the track, it wouldn't look nearly as curvy as it does from this angle with this lens at this distance.

Look at the two guys. They look like they are standing maybe 3 feet from each other.

But when you look closely, the guy between the rails is lined up roughly with the shadow of the front of the white truck.

The guy who is bent over is lined up (to my eye) a little bit closer to the camera than the shadow at the rear of the truck. The truck is roughly 20 feet long. Those guys are roughly 20-30 feet from each other, but they look like they are right next to each other. That because of how the picture was taken with a telephoto lens.

Similarly, the track had the bends to it, and we might think those bends occur in about 20 feet or so of track length, but I bet it's more like 100 feet of track length. I have no real way of knowing based only on this picture. I can't see the ties clearly enough to count them.

Now this is a buckled track...

I have seen that rail pic before and wondered why the track seemed to have moved more that then rail bed.
There has been a lot of discussion. Here is a good one:
https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/...-railway-line/

That was the 2010 New Zealand quake. I can't tell where the front of the truck is or what's part of the backhoe or whatever is shadowed.

https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/res...y/earthquakes/

Damn, that link of Jim's is interesting but hard to read scrolling back and forth horizontally.
A lot of the links are dead after 10 years, the aerial video would have been interesting.
What I did pick up is...
magnitude 7.1 earthquake
a 22 km surface rupture
4 m of horizontal displacement
9m bent track removed
135mm lens

The link I posted is about the photograph above. In fact, it contains that pic.