Nostalgia & History > It Happen 61 Years Ago Today

61 years ago today at 5:33pm California experience its worst passenger accident.  Santa Fe's San Diego-bound train No. 82 left the tracks at near 70mph on a curve near Redondo Junction killing 30 and injuring another 140.  Photo one shows the marker warning the engineer to slow train to 15 mph.  The heard of the curve was 3/4 miles ahead.  Photo 2 shows the curve at Rodondo Junction.  Photo 3 shows the UP Crane helping to upright the cars.

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All photos were taken by the Los Angeles Examiner.

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I remember that evening well watching either KTTV's Bill Welch or KTLA's Stan Chambers coverage throughout.  
A lot of gore was televised live.
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​Charlie

Me too, One of the first big LA TV news events. Ch. 5 did a great job in those days...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Channel 5 and 11 covered the accident.

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I also went up there after seeing it on TV. As I remember, hundreds of people walking blocks to see the wreck. No one was allowed to get very close, but the crowd watched intently at the action. A tragic accident -- later we learned the engineer saw the non existant orange groves at the last minute.

The lead car, DC-191 exists today and shows no evidnce of that tragic night.
Watts local

cewherry Wrote:
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> I remember that evening well watching either
> KTTV's Bill Welch or KTLA's Stan
> Chambers coverage throughout.  
> A lot of gore was televised live.
> ​
>
> ​Charlie

Stan Chambers was one of the pioneers of live coverage on TV. He worked for KTLA for 61 years, and died just a couple of years ago. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/17 06:57 by colehour.

DC-191 was rebuilt and assigned elsewhere (Kansas?) far from California bad memories.  Get a look at fireman #7 unloading the stretcher and the cigarette hanging from his mouth.  A real sign of the times!