WHOA! I have never seen that much damage to a locomotive before. Never seen the body stripped from the frame so cleanly. Doubt that a special agent would allow that today.
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Yes it was bad ... the remnants of the cab and nose were in the gondola along with the fuel tank. The trucks were strapped to the flatcars behind the gon. Different times then and I doubt a special agent would do anymore also.
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Special agent told you what happened. This was mentioned in TRAINS magazine with a photo of the crash scene.
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I hope they found the people responsible for this.
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Very nice photo. That really took a shot to the nose. East St. Louis is located in Illinois across the river from St. Louis, Missouri. Thanks for sharing.
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I was told they were caught and/or turned themselves in. They were very young. I believe the oldest was 10 or 11. According to a comment above this was covered in Trains, but I never saw that information. Everything I am reciting was shared by the special agent, and I am going from memory, so please don't quote me. Anyone with a collection of Trains mags could look in 1995. I am almost certain this happened in May, so maybe the July or August issue would yield some information.
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The accident occurred at Alma, MO on 27 April 1995. After setting out 8 cars -- loads of flour and one or two empty hoppers -- in the siding at Alma, the Kansas City-turn local departed and proceeded eastbound to Blackburn, where they cleared the main to meet the SLKC 26. Shortly after the meet, one of the crew members on the local realized that they might have forgotten to line & lock for main-track movement the switch at Alma and attempted to warn the crew of the SLKC, however it was too late. The SLKC entered the siding at Alma and struck the standing cars at 36 mph. The empty hopper on the east end of the standing cars over-rode the frame of the SLKC's lead unit, GWWR 2048, and crushed the cab, shoving it toward the rear of the unit, as seen in the photo. The Engineer & Conductor were both fatally injured, and an engineer trainee seriously injured.
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Thanks to all that have shared information. It appears there were two accidents in a close time period, and one involved switch tampering. I got my facts crossed, as it has been a long time.
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What happened to my loco!!!!!
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| Posted by Rick on May 29, 2013 | |
That cant be 2048 as it has DB the 2048 was the only one of the GP-38's that didn't come from CR but from ICG with out DB's
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Follow-up to Rick's post... very good observation, Rick. GWWR 2044 can be eliminated, as its short hood and carbody remained intact, though there was fire damage around the cab area. Nonetheless, it suffered only moderate damage and it was readily identifiable after the accident
Based on the presence of a dynamic brake grid, this has to be GWWR 2041. As Rick pointed out, GWWR 2048 was an ex-ICG unit and lacked dynamic brakes (as it did in until 1995, based on pre-accident photos).
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