Wrecks and Clean-up Trains

We begin with the New Haven Railroad with 2 freight train wrecks, and RDC incident, and another freight or two. In some of these we see the big Derricks at work hauling wheel sets, or lifting freight cars or coaches out of the way, or back on the rails. We also see bull dozers at work at one scene and Derricks working as well. These are all steam-powered cranes, but these were filmed in the 60’s during the diesel era. In some cases we see the work trains with the cranes or a GP9 or other diesel power moving the train around. There is a lot to enjoy in this segment shot by one photographer in the 1960’s.

Next we see the aftermath of 3 different steam-era incidents on the Denver & Rio Grande Narrow Gauge in Colorado. This material has some still images including a movie wreck around 1950, but shows one of the engine before the wreck in service. Then we see some still shots of engine 485 which fell into the Salida Turntable pit in 1953, followed by engines 497 and 498 wrecked sitting at Cumbres in 1960. This is movie footage of them sitting as the photographer had chased a freight to Cumbres. Both were later repaired and saw service after 1960.

Next is a black and white segment showing film while riding a passenger train in 1946 on the Union Pacific. We see a wrecked 4-8-4 in the siding with a challenger 3838 in steam, and another one as well at Thayer Junction, Wyoming. This is short, but we have some information about the incident.

Another Union Pacific derailment follows in 1955 at Dodd, Colorado. The west bound “Challenger” streamliner was detoured off the mainline due to high water and washouts on the mainline near Julesburg, and took the line from Julesburg to connect to the Denver-Cheyenne line to bypass the bad area. Unfortunately it hit another washout at speed and derailed. We see some of the train aftermath, and 2 cranes working to clean-up some of the mess the next day, as well as the work train.

Next is a Pennsylvania Railroad Black and White film during the steam-era which shows a derailed steam engine which appears to be from a land-slide. Not much is known, though there are a few neat scenes of other trains, and work on the wreck site. A pair of Derrick Cranes are seen working a derailment on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway somewhere in Kentucky along the Ohio River. A pair of F-units are seen on one work train, and an Alco on the other one. Another Pennsylvania Railroad derailment is seen at Convoy, Ohio in 60’s with 2 E-units on a passenger train that hit a heavy truck trailer.

Last but surely not least is a 1958 wreck at Sardinia, Ohio on the Norfolk and Western Railroad where two freight trains hit head-on in the early morning hours of Easter. We see 2 camera coverage(this was about 20 miles from where we lived), including the two sets of overturned GP-9’s and freight cars mangled. We also see a N&W crane at work. A special bonus is the passing of passenger train #26, the eastbound Powhatan Arrow, powered by Steam engine Class J 4-8-4 number 611, which survives today. This was 3 months before this train was dieselized.