Steam & Excursion > A Bad Day At Savage Rapids Results In This Kind Of Carnage!

Not all helper engine assignments go as planned.  You are certainly looking at just such assignment gone horribly wrong.

We do not have the date for this terrible wreck on Southern Pacific's Oregon Division, but we know the location to be Savage Rapids, just outside Grants Pass, Oregon.

Engineer Gus Edlund and Fireman H.W. Mercier were assigned on SP # 2343 as the helper engine crew to assist Engineer Art Strader and Fireman Frank Wescott on SP # 2427 on the daily freight.  Unfortunately for both crews they found some soft track along the way and this pile up was the result.

Once the photographer was done taking photos, it was time to pick up this mess and get back to another day of the daily risks of steam railroading.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/16 03:09 by LoggerHogger.

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What a huge bummer!

Some interesting dynamics at work in this wreck. Note the set of wheels on the track in front of the lead engine.  And I would think they were moving right along for the first loaded car to run in and pile up past the helper.. Any thoughts on this?
Roger Beckett

Interesting choice of road engine for the freight - SP 2427 was a high-stepping P-1 class 4-6-2 Pacific with 77" drivers, normally used in passenger service.  Both locomotives have train indicators near their smokestacks, a feature added around 1913.  2427 has its road number painted on the tender rather than the cab, a practice discontinued around 1916.  So the event occured in that time period.

Rich Tower

Martin,

Was there any injuries on this wreck? Doesn't look like a high speed roll over.

-Dave

Dave,

The SP report on the wreck does not say anything about injuries.  I can't believe there weren't some injuries though.

Martin

Pretty clever move to carry a car full of cribbing in case of derailment.

RL_Cabin wrote:

> Both locomotives have train indicators near their smokestacks, a feature added around 1913.  

The SP started using train indicators on locomotives in November 1908.

>2427 has its road number painted on the tender rather than the cab, a practice discontinued around 1916.

The practice of painting engine numbers on tenders was discontinued by the SP around March 1917.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/16 12:30 by johnsweetser.

That light weight flat with the lumber must have done some interesting moves to get beside and ahead of the rear tender. Looking back down the track it's hard to tell but I think most of the train was empty flats so why the helper?

jgmiller Wrote:
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> That light weight flat with the lumber must have
> done some interesting moves to get beside and
> ahead of the rear tender. Looking back down the
> track it's hard to tell but I think most of the
> train was empty flats so why the helper?

Could be that the Chief was balancing power. Now, if power is needed somewhere that it is not, it's a matter of adding units to the consist. Back then, it was a matter of two engines and two engine crews. Double heading doesn't take an extra train crew like a light engine would (which would then make it a cab hop since if a train crew was needed, their caboose would have to come along) and doesn't use up as much railroad.

TAW

Seeing that, not only is there a truck on the track, ahead of the engine, but also that the lead pilot is smashed in and that there are more ties/cribbing on the lead pilot, I'm gonna say that the carload of ties was actually on the rear of a train that they've rear ended. Note also that there are "extra" trucks ahead of the gondola, likely the gondola's own trucks which have been stripped out from under it and shoved forward as the engines plowed by.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/16 20:35 by crackerjackhoghead.

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seeing that, not only is there a truck on the
> track, ahead of the engine, but also that the lead
> pilot is smashed in and that there are more
> ties/cribbing on the lead pilot, I'm gonna say
> that the carload of ties was actually on the rear
> of a train that they've rear ended. Note also that
> there are "extra" trucks ahead of the gondola,
> likely the gondola's own trucks which have been
> stripped out from under it and shoved forward as
> the engines plowed by.

You may be exactly right!
 

....what's the number of the 3rd loco? (You can see the headlight , smokebox and stack behind the 2427's tender)

....and why is there a passenger car within the mangled wreck?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/16 21:18 by nhiwwrr.