50th Anniversary of Santa Fe Warbonnet Alco PA-1 Wreck in Anaheim, CA (w/ Present Day Photos)
It was December 22, 1965 and as an avid teenage KLTA-5 (Los Angeles) TV news watcher at the time, and railfan, a live helicopter news spot came on with aerial views of a Santa Fe Warbonnet Alco PA-1 on its right side on the end of a curve in Anaheim, CA.
The San Diego bound San Diegan had collided with a gravel truck at State College Blvd., not far from and between I believe the then future Anaheim Stadium (where the California Angels baseball team now plays) and world famous Disneyland.
It is unknown how long after the wreck it was, but the lead unit, Santa Fe 61L (61), was stored near 4th Street in San Bernardino, close to the “A” Yard and West Yard Tower, and faced west, with its all horribly torn up right side plainly visible to the public on 4th Street. The unit never ran again.
It is unknown also if any here at the forum are interested in this wreck, almost 50 years after the fact, but there are many Alco PA-1 lovers, and it was thought that this thread about the incident might be of interest to them, as well as Santa Fe fans in general.
The site was visited on Sunday, February 15, 2015 and the following photos taken thereat are presented below.
The PA-1 was traveling the same way the camera is pointing (towards San Diego), colliding behind the camera, and apparently came off the rails, turned over, and slid on its ride side until it stopped.
Back then the above forefront right track (as single-track) curved to the background left track.
Looking towards Los Angeles, the left track was the single-track the PA-1 rounded.
A northwest view of the State College Blvd. grade crossing today:
While the road is seven lanes wide now (above), with the seventh lane as the center divider, it was, I think, only four lanes in 1965. The truck, from research material, seems to have been northbound on State College Blvd., and likely collided with the warbonnet unit between the northbound (rightward) No. 1 and No. 2 lanes today (above photo, forefront), with the No. 1 lane of course being closest to the center of the roadway.
On Sunday, February 22, 2015, K.P. was back in Anaheim, and shot the below photo from Main Street in Orange, looking northwest towards the old crash site, which was beyond the freeway bridges in the background.
Above, back in 1965, the background right track met up with the foreground left track, and was only single-track. That then single-track line also had an incident several years earlier, again with a gravel truck, with the Warbonnet F-units led passenger train also derailing, and I believe hitting the Santa Ana River Bridge on this side of the bridge.
Any here at the forum remember the 1965 incident? Did you see it on TV or in person back then? Or, anyone here at the forum infatuated with the Alco PA-1’s have a comment?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Quick question, was Stan Chambers the one covering for KTLA?
I've seen the Sante Fe 62L (ALCo PA-1) which later became the D&H 18 up close. Its now privately owned and in the paint scheme of NPR 190. I shot some video of it while its currently being worked on at the Oregon Rail Heritage Museum. Its a classy looking locomotive, but personally I think it should be painted in its original Santa Fe livery. Its a shame there are not more of these locomotives still around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXUeT76dGg4
Trains Northwest
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7z2SF15sZ3pfV_VymvNf9A
Replies
erikem (3-7):
At this point in time, I have no recollection of who at KTLA covered the 1965 story of the PA-1 wreck. I do remember there was a guy I believe named Powers that flew KTLA’s helicopter at the time for aerial coverage. Before Power’s tenure at KTLA, he was shot down over Russia in the famous U-2 incident.
Stan Chambers died just last month on Friday, February 13, 2015
Diesel Power (3-8):
The unit that flipped on its side after colliding with a truck in Anaheim was Santa Fe 61L (61). Most fascinating was your reference of Santa Fe 62L (62) becoming NKP 190.
It would be nice to see an Alco PA-1 in Santa Fe’s famous warbonnet scheme, but things were done to NKP 190 that pretty much ends that unit ever wearing red and silver again. Large number boards were put on NKP 190, so to repaint it now in a warbonnet livery would be totally out of character with the PA-1’s of Santa Fe.
LINK for Santa Fe sister 59L:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2240276
Santa 62L to NKP 190 and now large number boards:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3275084
It is too bad too a PB-1 was never saved.
Best,
K.P.
I was curious about Stan Chambers as I've known his son for a number of years now and met Stan ne or two years ago. Stan's face lit up when I mentioned my uncle's story about when KTLA rented one of KTTV's microwave links for the live broadcast of a atmospheric test at the Nevada Test Site.
Thanks,
- Erik
I may have had the honor(?) of taking one of the last photos of ATSF 51/51A sitting in the scrap line at Pielet Bros. in April 1969.
K. P. HarrierIt is too bad too a PB-1 was never saved.
Still one around, although it's always missed when surviving Alco PA's are mentioned. So it could still happen, although it will likely follow those Erie builts, Sharknose, and C-Liner B units that made it into the 1990's in going to the scrapyard one of these days (At least the trucks off the Erie Builts are living on).
I wonder if there are suitable trucks for it though, since the Rio Grande put Bloombergs under it after it became a steam generator car (Her sister went to scrap in the 1990s still with her original trucks). The source of trucks that went under these two repatriated Alco PA cab units included a third pair.
But I don't know what happened since then to that unused third set.
Would make for an excellent companion to Nickel Plate 190. I've thought before how it would be neat to win the lottery, buy her, and donate her to them with alterations to return her to her original appearance.
Would allow them to have their own HEP car, and would be great for carrying things like tools around in case there's an issue during an excursion that has to be addressed.
And it would just look nice, paired with their fictional Nickel Plate #190 (Or perhaps paired with #16 in Texas, if they ever cosmetically restore her, since the Santa Fe did operate PB's).
Today is the Day!
Well, today is the day, the 50th anniversary of the December 22, 1965 wreck of San Diegan Santa Fe 61L in Anaheim, CA!
If YOU saw the news on TV after the incident happened, how does it feel to be a half a century older today?
In an ironic twist of fate, K.P. on February 15, 2015 for this then future post series visited the Anaheim wreck site, and photographed outbound (moving away from the camera) Metrolink cabcar 945 that happened by, and didn’t think too much about it
A little over a week later that cabcar in the early morning hours had just started its runs for the day, in the darkness, in Oxnard near the Pacific Ocean, and leading, with a student engineer accelerating at about 45 M.P.H., that student engineer suddenly put the train into emergency when he saw a pickup truck struck on the tracks, but to no avail, because at impact 945 derailed, spun around, and landed on its right side with scores ending up being hospitalize. The engineer (with seniority slot #1) who was supervising the student engineer later succumbed to his injuries sustained in the wreck
Back in Anaheim, many miles away … Things have changed so much at and in the neighborhood of the State College Blvd. grade crossing where Santa Fe PA-1 61L came off the tracks in Anaheim where the topic incident occurred at 50 years ago. If nothing else, that should make all those of us that were aware of the incident back then feel a bit older. I know I do. Where did 50 years go?
Most likely Anaheim stadium was just finnishing the construction work. First game was in spring 1966.
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