The runaway Ed B is referring to was at Devore, CA on the SP Lancaster cut-off alongside the ATSF/UP Cajon Pass Line - aka the Duffy Street disaster. (I was there just after it happened; potash dust was still in the air. The Santa Fe dispatchers in San Bernardino heard the whole thing play out and sent me to verify that ATSF was not impacted and where exactly the derailment was. Only time I was ever sent to locate Brand X's derailment)
Balt:We might have discussed this previously, but when were you an operator at Vincennes? I grew up west of there, just north of Olney. I made a couple of trips to Vincennes in the mid70s and took a photo or two.
That B&O mainline is pretty much gone now. I believe grain trains are run out of Olney on the old IC branch line. As a kid growing up the two big events of the day were the northbound and southbound IC trains between Mattoon and Evansville. Quite a bit of interchange there at Olney between the two lines. In fact I had a summer job at the AMF bicycle plant in Olney loading box cars.
Ed
Two different incidents are being conflated (NTSB Railroad Accident Report numbers below).
ATSF H-BALT1-31 runaway on February 1, 1996, cause of which was laid to "...an undetermined restriction or blockage that prevented the traincrew from achieving and maintaining adequate train braking..." as described in RAR 9605 and
SP 1-MJLBP-11 unit trona train runaway on May 12, 1989, cause of which was laid to "...the failure to determine and communicate the accurate trailing weight of the train..." as described in RAR 9002.
There was some speculation that someone had closed an anglecock in the middle of the ATSF train while it was stopped at the top of the grade, but it remained only a suspicion. In the SP wreck, the pipeline leaked gasoline which caused the humungous explosion 13 days after the train wreck.
MP173Balt:We might have discussed this previously, but when were you an operator at Vincennes? I grew up west of there, just north of Olney. I made a couple of trips to Vincennes in the mid70s and took a photo or two. That B&O mainline is pretty much gone now. I believe grain trains are run out of Olney on the old IC branch line. As a kid growing up the two big events of the day were the northbound and southbound IC trains between Mattoon and Evansville. Quite a bit of interchange there at Olney between the two lines. In fact I had a summer job at the AMF bicycle plant in Olney loading box cars. Ed
In that area, I also worked at Lawrenceville, Clay City, Salem and Shattuc. The importance of the night time job at Salem was to check the interchange with the M&I to make sure that if they reported cars interchanged prior to Midnight the cars were actually on the interchange track prior to Midnight (the days when per diem was on a daily basis, not hourly as it is today.) Also putting US Mail on the Metropolitan Special - just routine until some hunting magazine published from some small town South of Salem was sending out their monthly issue - the whole freight house room was filled with 75 pound 'slugs' (small mail bags) that had to be sorted for Eastern destinations for #12 that was due at about 2345 PM and for Western destinations for #11 that was due at 545 AM - Office hours were 1030 PM to 630 AM & sell tickets to any of the public that wanted to make a trip on short notice.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Norm48327Captive roads have no choice.
Yeah, that's kinda what i was thinking. "Pay up, or we cut you loose" type ploy.
I've seen letters where the railroad was demanding 5 figures, "or else". Usually a political ploy to achieve some other objective, but when you are on the receiving end it provides a real attention getter.
Balt:That made for quite a busy night at Salem. Do you recall the name of the hunting magazine? I cannot think of anything published in that area.
What was the purpose of the open station at Clay City? Looking at my ETT from 1970, I see it was open only first shift. I cannot think of any interchange at Clay City...was it a train order station?
MP173Balt:That made for quite a busy night at Salem. Do you recall the name of the hunting magazine? I cannot think of anything published in that area. What was the purpose of the open station at Clay City? Looking at my ETT from 1970, I see it was open only first shift. I cannot think of any interchange at Clay City...was it a train order station? Ed
Clay City was a Agent Operator's position. Primarily Agency work with the occasional train order.
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