Nostalgia & History > Lark accident 1959 (newspaper)

An article on the accident of both Larks near San Luis Obispo in 1959
What was the siding?
Wonder if the smashed car was fixed?
That about 6049?

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love that last photo of a square-end observtion car on the tail of the Lark.

I cant believe something like this delayed the train ONLY 4 hours. In todays world
it would be more like 12 hours (or annulled altogether)
SP really knew how to run trains when they wanted to. I sure miss em

Hark, hark, the... look out!!!

I recall hearing that the meet between "Larks" was customarily a rolling meet, and the hoghead of Train 75 misjudged his proximity to the fouling point that night. I wonder if I'm recalling that story correctly.

The poor streamlined "Lark" had some recurrent problems covering its rear. There were two earlier collisions, a year apart, which totaled two Sleeper-Buffet-Lounge-Observations. Pullman 400, the original lightweight "Lark" obs, was destroyed by a collision with the Coast Merchandise East in September of 1941, when only months old. The next year, its sister car 401 was clobbered by a military train, in December of 1942.

That car was replaced by Pullman's "Muskingum River", a stunning brushed-stainless-steel 'demonstrator' that was painted in Two-Tone gray and permanently assigned to the "Lark" after the 1942 collision. It was square-ended by the Pullman Shops in Oakland, California as can be seen in the third and fourth news photos here.

The car, then numbered as SP 9501, was still under Pullman lease. The accident (at the Serrano siding) finished it, and it was retired and scrapped in 1959. Of interest: the sister car, SP 9500 -- originally "American Milemaster" and reassigned to the "Lark" after the first fiasco in 1941 -- managed to escape the four-for-four odds of the curse, and after square-ending and several more years of SP service became EMD's test car ET-800, thence to Conrail as Surface Analyzer Car 22, and eventually to its last reported location at Scranton, PA as DLWR 100, still in Conrail dark green.

The seriously mangled ten roomette-six double bedroom sleeping car, SP 9035, was retired for scrap in September after the accident. It was fortunate that the damaged side was the aisle corridor. I recall reading that the "Lark" had make-up instructions to place the aisle sides towards 'traffic' where possible. Perhaps this was common in sleeping car train consists?

The E9, wearing its Scarlet and Gray repaint for less than a year here, was rebuilt and lasted until the advent of Amtrak according to Joe Strapac. Sister 6048 suffered a few indignities and was rebuilt with an F7-style nose, but it appears SP 6049 was repaired in kind, keeping its more graceful curved indicator boards intact.

The signal-and-marker-light clusters (seen on SP 9501 in the third and fourth newspaper pics) which sprouted on the rear of most SP rear-end and business cars were no doubt in some way related to the 1941 and 1942 accidents. Those sleek original Pullman observation cars had no rear lights, and only two small streamlined markers on either side of the tapered rear end, and located considerably forward at that.

Lovely train. Got to ride it in Pullman style twice when I was a kid. We were safely mid-train both times, although I had no idea that there was even an issue. I'll bet at least some of the long-time "Lark" patrons requested their rooms well forward for years after!

~ BZ



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/13 20:56 by Notch16.

Here is 6049 10-3-70 stored at LA waiting it's fate.
JH

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SP Conductor Woody Hare (long retired) one day got to talking and told me and several others that the engineer on the eastbound Lark (I know, this may not have contributed to the accident) had been drinking. He marked off as quickly as possible and retired on the spot to avoid a formal investigation and possible dismissal.

Notch16 Wrote:
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> The E9, wearing its Scarlet and Gray repaint for
> less than a year here, was rebuilt and lasted
> until the advent of Amtrak according to Joe
> Strapac. Sister 6048 suffered a few indignities
> and was rebuilt with an F7-style nose, but it
> appears SP 6049 was repaired in kind, keeping its
> more graceful curved indicator boards intact.
> ~ BZ

Not only was it repaired, but in September of 1959 (four months later), it was the lead unit of the Kruschev Special . . .

Thats the west end of Serrano. (CTC) The crew fell asleep and went by the signal and into the side of the other train. Van Sandt was the Engineer and John Weaver was the fireman on #75. Both crews were out of the City.

Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/13 12:04 by spnudge.

And I finally ordered the back issue of S•P Trainline with the superb article on the Khrushchev Special.

Right there on page 22-23 of the Spring 2003 issue (No. 75) is a freshly-repaired SP 6049. I spent a great deal of time studying the nose for evident signs of the repair after the "Lark" incident. But even though there were minor irregularities present, the nose graft was done very, very well.

But then I looked at the 'brow' above the Fireman's windshield... and then went back and looked at the 1970 photo here, posted by JH.

In the 1959 photo as well as the color shot above, you can see very hasty body repair above that windshield. A flat piece of steel was grafted onto the center part of the arch, including the windshield wiper pivot. It appears only minimal attempts were made to re-fashion the compound curves of the original EMD sheetmetal.

And the two dents that are visible in the upper shot here? Loud and proud as the Premier's special train moved into Dick Steinheimer's viewfinder at Bayshore.

Looking at the newspaper photos, it looks as though a portion of the nose was torn off and peeled back, striking the upper cab window opening. That evidence is even more clear in the 1959 Stein shot.

One wonders if there was any thought given to assigning this particular unit, only four months after the "Lark" fiasco, to the Khrushchev train. SP provided an absolutely first-rate consist and operation for the special, and perhaps this unit was chosen because it was the freshest out of the shops.

Anyway, had to go back and fill in the database here!

~ BZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/13 00:09 by Notch16.