If an Amtrak engineer in charge of a St. Louis to Chicago train was playing ball yesterday, he would likely have been trying hard to avoid strike three.

In a rare sequence of events, the northbound train was involved in two separate vehicle strikes at two different locations in Illinois.

The first incident was reported at approximately 08:45 CST when a woman drover her car into the train's locomotive at a crossing in Braidwood, IL. The woman sustained minor injuries and was not hospitalized. After being delayed for nearly two hours, the train was back on the move for Chicago.

No sooner had the train began rolling northwardly, it ran into another problem - a collision with a farm tractor hauling a grain wagon. There was no word on the fate of the farmer, however it is believed that he did escape uninjured. No one on board the Amtrak train was injured.

The train arrived in Chicago five hours and 40 minutes late. A southbound train from Chicago to Kansas City also was delayed by the incidents, he said.